Oral health status, treatment needs and demands of an elderly institutionalised population in Athens.

Oral health status, treatment needs and demands were investigated among 242 elderly people (63 males and 179 females) living at the largest residential home in Athens. The mean age of the sample was 83.8 years (82.8 males and 84.1 females). The oral health status was generally poor, 64.4% of the population were edentulous while 16.1% of them lacked dentures in both jaws. 43.2% of the subjects presented with denture-induced pathology of the oral mucosa, requiring either conservative or surgical treatment. The dentate subjects had an average of 12.3 teeth with 4.2 teeth requiring extraction and 2.2 teeth with coronal restorable caries. The mean Root Caries Index was found to be 18.5%. The assessment of the periodontal treatment needs according to the CPITN revealed that 9.3% of the dentate subjects needed only oral hygiene instruction, 61.5% professional scaling and 20.9% more complex periodontal treatment. Although the total percentage of subjects needing some form of dental treatment was 85.1%, only 34% of them felt that they required it and only 13.1% had tried to obtain it.