Oral health in postmenopausal Turkish women

The most common condition affecting all women is menopause and most women spend one third of their lives after the menopause. Menopause is accompanied by a number of characteristic physical changes, some of which are manifested in the oral cavity.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the oral health status of a group of menopausal women who visited a menopause clinic in Ankara, Turkey.

A total of 348 women, aged 44-65 (mean 52.17+/-4.67), who spontaneously attended the menopause clinic at Hacettepe University Hospital, Ankara, Turkey, (between 1998 and 2000) were interviewed and examined by a trained dentist over a two-year period. Their oral status was determined by the same dentist by using the follwing indices on the basis of WHO criteria: Decayed, Missing and Filled Teeth (DMFT); Decayed, Missing and Filled Teeth Surfaces (DMFS); Root, Decayed, Filled (RDF); and Community Periodontal Index (CPI). Oral complaints and denture status was also assessed. The data were analysed by means of difference between groups.

A total of 23% of the women were using hormones and 77% were not. The most significant symptom was oral dryness with 48.8% in the hormone users and 68.3% in the non-users (p < 0.05). A total of 36.3% of the hormone users and 39.5% of the non-users were edentulous (p > 0.05). DMFT, DMFS and CPI values of non-users were higher than the hormone users (p < 0.001). RDF values did not show any significant difference between hormone users and non users (p > 0.05).

These data suggest that menopause might play a role in the oral status of women. The use of hormones seemed to affect oral health positively.