The uptake of dental services by elderly Germans

The aim of the study was to assess the uptake of dental services by the old and very old population within the scope of the Berlin Aging Study (Berliner Altersstudie BASE).

A multi-disciplinary structured interview was performed on 928 subjects, aged from 70 to 103 years of whom 516 persons volunteered to take part in a 14-session intensive protocol. Six representative study groups were matched for age and gender. Subjects were asked to recall the timing of their most recent dental visit. Data were validated by sending for dental records and compared with all study participants from the multi-disciplinary intake assessment. Data were related to age group, dental state, dementia and education.

Reported last contact with dental services ranged from 2 weeks to 52 years (median 18 months) with a higher time lapse in the study groups aged 85 and older. Dentate subjects had seen their dentist more recently than edentate subjects. Higher education correlated with an increased dental utilisation. Subjective memory on the time lapse since the last dental appointment coincided in 13% of the subjects with available dental records (n=84), was misjudged between one and six months in 55%, and by more than six months in the remainder. Moderately or severely demented subjects who remembered their last dental appointment (n=48 of 70) showed no consistently different utilisation to healthy or mildly demented study participants.

Edentate old and very old subjects show the least frequent utilisation of dental services. Data on motivation and barriers to care are needed to develop strategies to improve the use of dental services and thus promote oral health in late life.