Analysis of The Quality of Life of Elderly Patients with Removable Orthopedic Constructions During Rehabilitation

Abstract

The need for medical care, including dental care, is increasing in the elderly and senile age. Late appeal for dental care causes a change in the DMF-index, in consequence of which there is a partial or complete loss of teeth. The complete absence of teeth is accompanied by morphofunctional changes in all elements of the dentofacial system, a significant reduction in the chewing ability. Providing orthopedic dental care to the elderly, senile and old people is complicated due to the features of adaptation to removable dentures. The impact of removable dentures on the quality of life of a dental patient was assessed in this study.
Materials and Methods: The study involved 217 people aged 75 to 95 years. All patients needed removable dentures. Before prosthetics, a survey was conducted using the OHIP-14 questionnaire, which showed the level of satisfaction of the examined patients with their dental health. Then the prosthetics procedure was initiated. In the 1st group, the dentures were made using the standard method. In the 2nd group, the impression was removed with a modified individual tray, which should improve adaptation to a removable denture. One month after prosthetics, when all patients had a complete adaptation to the removable dentures, they were re-surveyed using the OHIP-14 questionnaire to identify the dynamics of the quality of life of the patients being examined.
Results and Discussion: The results showed the effectiveness of the proposed method. The number of patients with a good standard of living in group 2 increased by 58.8%, and in group 1 only by 34.5%. At the same time, in group 2, adaptation to removable dentures occurred faster.