[Subjective oral health problems of geriatric outpatients and general medical geriatric findings-a pilot study]

Oral health problems of the aged in Germany are not recorded in general practitioner's practices despite a high prevalence. For this purpose, a subjective geriatric outpatient oral health screening (GAMS) is available.

The aim was to clarify whether subjective oral health problems reported by the GAMS can serve as risk indicators for medical findings in geriatric patients.

A total of 75 geriatric patients >75 years old in a family doctor's practice, GAMS, laboratory parameters, e.g. blood count with hemoglobin (g/dl), leukocytes (cells/nl), platelets (cells/nl), sodium (mmol/l), potassium (mmol/l), glucose in serum (mg/dl), HbA1c (HPLC)%, cholesterol (mg/dl) and glomerular filtration rate (GFR, ml/min), Barthel index and timed up and go test (TUG) were carried out.

The most common oral health problems were chewing difficulties (19%) and xerostomia (40%). In the case of oral health problems, there were reduced everyday skills (p = 0.066), slower walking speed (0.049), higher serum glucose (p = 0.001) and long-term glucose values (p = 0.002). Bleeding gums are risk indicators for higher leukocyte concentration (p = 0.036). With xerostomia, the hemoglobin value drops by 1.13 g/dl (p = 0.001).

The GAMS helps to identify oral problems as risk indicators of reduced geriatric health. Also, GAMS can be initiated in cases of the described geriatric pathologies in order to identify possible oral problems.