Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontology
Oral MedicineImpact of dry mouth on oral symptoms and function in removable denture wearers in Japan
Section snippets
Study population
The subjects in this study were participants of the Senior Citizens' College of Osaka prefecture, who attended the program in 1999. The study sample consisted of community-dwelling, independently living elderly people over the age of 60 years, who attended lectures once a week. This college is one of the adult educational systems supported by the government of Osaka prefecture, which enrolls volunteers for a period of 1 year. This course focused not only on health topics but also on other
Results
Overall, 9% of the subjects had noticed a subjective feeling of dry mouth when eating a meal (Table I). The dental status was significantly associated with reports of dryness during eating (P < .05).
In this study, denture wearers who belonged to the CD or the RPD group were used for the analysis. They were 493 people (258 males and 235 females) with an age range of 60 to 88 years and a mean age of 67.3 ± 4.5 (SD) years. Responses to the questions of dry mouth were not significantly related to
Discussion
This study evaluated a convenience sample of older adults living in an urban area and volunteering to participate in a free education program. It is not known how representative of elderly Japanese these individuals are. However, in Japan, most old people (95.5% of those 75 to 79 years, 90.8% of those 80 to 84 years, and 79.1% of those 85 years and over) are functionally independent and have no limitations in their daily activities.31 Therefore, it seems important to know about the oral health
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