Dental needs and dental service use patterns of an elderly edentulous population.

This study was undertaken to examine an elderly edentulous population to evaluate current dental needs and dental service use rates as well as to determine whether trends toward a reversal of this group's poor dental care habits are present. Of the 443 elderly individuals screened in the current study, 168 were determined to be edentulous in both dental arches. This means that 38% of the elderly population examined would at some time require dental services either to maintain their edentulous arches and related intraoral structures in a state of health or to fabricate new or maintain existing complete prostheses in a properly functioning condition. This figure is 12% lower than 1974 statistics, which indicated that 50% of the nation's elderly population were edentulous. A larger population would have to be surveyed to determine if this trend toward declining edentulousness is a national phenomenon or simply characteristic of the current population sample. Despite the lower proportion of edentulous individuals within the study population, some disturbing results were obtained. Although 92% of the population had complete dentures that they claimed were worn most or all of their waking hours, over 90% of these dentures were evaluated by examiners as requiring significant refinement (26%) or remake (69%). In addition, 58% of this group of individuals felt that they did not or were not sure whether they required current dental treatment; 58% also felt that the fit of their dentures was excellent or good. These figures demonstrated that only slightly more than half the study population was aware that their dentures were in need of corrective treatment.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)