[Contemporary methods and mobile denture cleansers and theirs significance for older population]

A dramatic increase in the number of people living in their seventies, eighties and nineties is associated with a loss of teeth and the use of mobile dentures. The aim of this paper was to highlight the consequences of poor denture hygiene on oral and general health in vulnerable elderly people, in long-term hospitalized elderly patients and in long-term institutionalized elderly in nursing homes. DENTURE DEPOSITS AND CONSEQUENCES OF POOR DENTURE HYGIENE: The number of bacteria living in the mouth is getting larger after putting denture on. Namely, a small "space" develops between jaw and denture, creating perfect conditions for bacterial growth. Denture becomes a "reservoir" of micro-organisms. Denture deposits such as bacterial plaque, fungi, tartar and remnants could be responsible for stomatitis prothetica, cheilitis angularis, inflammatory fibrous hyperplasia, halitosis (bad breath), dental caries in mobile denture carriers, mucositis and periimplantitis in mobile implant over-dentures carriers, accelerated destruction of denture materials for underlying, such as denture base soft liners, respiratory airways diseases, bacterial endocarditis and gastrointestinal infections. REMOVAL OF DENTURE DEPOSITS: It is recommendable to combine mechanical and chemical denture cleaning. Denture submersion into a commercial cleansing solution for less than one hour is an effective cleaning method. Commercial cleanser: specifically intended for dentures with metal parts should be used for those dentures. Commercial cleansers with a new component of silicon polymer, whose thin layer surrounds all denture surfaces and disables oral bacteria to agglomerate, are effective and useful. Preventive hygienic treatments are very important in hospitals and homes for the aged, bearing in mind that old and ill persons reside here. Those institutions are recommended to get equipped with ultrasound denture cleaners. IMPORTANCE OF WRITTEN BROCHURE ON PROPER DENTURE HYGIENE: Patients should be verbally instructed and showed about cleaning techniques, but also written instructions inform of brochure should be distributed in order to achieve better effects.