Dental care for elderly people by general dental practitioners

In Salford, the care and facilities for elderly people provided by general dental practitioners in practices having three or more dentists were compared with those given in smaller practices. Accessibility and size of dental practice were significantly related, with larger practices being more accessible to elderly and disabled people than smaller ones. A domiciliary service was given by all dentists, regardless of size of the practice. Forty-three per cent of dentists in the larger but none in the smaller practices recalled full denture patients. Eighty-seven per cent of dentists in the larger practices, compared with 53% of those in small ones, gave correct answers to seven or more of 14 questions about the elderly. Attitudes towards the elderly were measured using a seven-point scale: the more favourable the attitude, the higher the score. The mean score for dentists in large practices was 5.13, which was significantly greater than the mean score of 4.16 for those in small practices (P less than 0.001).