[The ability of elderly institutionalized pensioners in Reykjavik in maintaining and carrying out oral hygiene...

In 1984 a random sample of 400 institutionalized old-age pensioners, 67 years and older, was interviewed on oral hygiene habits. Complete denture cleanliness was also studied by using a plaque detector to disclose plaque on the fitting surface of the maxillary denture. Based on the distribution of plaque a grading system using three categories (excellent, fair, poor) was applied to indicate complete denture cleanliness. About 94% of dentulous and 88.7% of edentulous respondents claimed that they were able to take care of their oral hygiene themselves. The proportion of dentulous subjects that cleaned their teeth at least once a day was 66.7%. A great majority (92.4%) of edentulous pensioners reported that they cleaned their complete dentures once a day or more often and women cleaned their dentures more frequently than men. Nevertheless cleanliness was graded excellent in only 14.4% of the complete dentures. This seems to indicate a need for increased education on the importance of a good oral hygiene and that institutionalized pensioners should receive more help with their daily oral hygiene.