Needs for gerodontological treatment in the elderly living in Lower Silesia

Many factors influence decisions regarding gerodontological treatment. Apart from the clinical condition of a patient, there is a complex of crucial socioeconomic factors, comorbidities, place of residence, and psychological aspects. Therefore, gerodontological treatment plans are significantly diversified.

One of the goals of our cross-sectional epidemiological study of Lower Silesia seniors aged 65-74 was to identify all their needs related to gerodontological treatment.

From the randomly selected sample group of 1,600 people, 387 inhabitants of Wrocław and Oława reported to take part in the study. The anamnestic study identified demographic and socioeconomic determinants, coexistence of general diseases and behavioral variables related to oral health behaviors. In the clinical study, the decayed-missing-filled (DMF) index, the community periodontal index (CPI), oral hygiene indices, clinical pathological lesions in oral mucosa, and the index of prosthetic reconstruction of missing teeth according to the World Health Organization (WHO) were determined. Criteria for the need for prosthetic treatment, dental caries treatment, periodontal disease treatment, improvement of oral hygiene, and treatment of mucosal diseases, including potentially pre-cancerous and cancerous disorders, were defined.

As many as 95.6% of all respondents required at least 1 form of dental treatment. The most common need (75%) was prosthetic treatment of missing teeth either in the maxilla or in the mandible. Forty-nine per cent of the respondents needed treatment of caries in the clinical crown or root of at least 1 tooth. Further, these needs were related to the following factors: treatment of oral mucosal diseases (35.4%), professional periodontal treatment (35%), improvement of very bad oral hygiene (29.2%), and oncological treatment of pre-cancerous and cancerous lesions in the oral cavity (9.6%).

The needs for gerodontological treatment found in the regional study of young Lower Silesian seniors are very high and cannot be met by services provided and funded by the state.