The oral care behavior and posterior dentition of the elderly in Donchedi district, Suphanburi Province

Abstract

The objectives of this research were aimed to study oral health care behaviors and the casual relationship between factors and behaviors in the elderly with posterior teeth occlusion pairs conditions in Donchedi district, Suphanburi province. In this study, a sample was a group of 316 socialistic elderly people aged 60 years and over. The tool used for data collection was a 3 parts questionnaire, general data, oral behaviors, and the record of number of correct posterior occlusion pairs. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, number, percentage, mean, standard deviation and Pearson's correlation coefficient.

The results showed that most of the elderly were female 55.8 percent, age in the range of 60 - 69 years 58.8 percent, marital status was 67.5 percent, average monthly income that less than 5,000 Baht was 77.2 percent, The most chronic medical condition was a high blood pressure with 70.4 percent. Most of the elderly had moderate to highest level of cleaning behavior in all 3 aspects. The average was between 2.64 - 4.63 points. The average brushing consistency had high to highest level was between 4.27 - 4.79 points, the mean brushing time had high to highest level was between 4.08 - 4.56 points, the average use of accessories had low to moderate level was between 2.21 - 3.07 points, the tongue cleaning behavior had low to moderate level was between 2.31 - 2.77 points. Most of them had higher number of posterior teeth occlusion pairs than the Thai elderly’s average, 4.12 - 4.96 pairs. We also found that the oral hygiene care behaviors consisted of teeth cleaning and tongue cleaning were positively associated with posterior teeth occlusion pairs with statistically significant at 0.05 and a Pearson’s correlation coefficient of 0.75.

From this study, it was concluded that condition of having a back occlusion in the elderly were affected by oral health care behaviors. Teeth cleaning behavior was improved in a better direction but the using of accessories for teeth cleaning and tongue brushing was still struggling.Therefore, to promote and prevent oral health problems among the elderly. Activities should be organized to instill good oral health care behaviors from adolescents and working age, which in the future will step into the elderly.