Factors Affecting the Selection of Denture Adhesive or Oral Moisturizers

Objectives: In the ultra-aged society, most elderly individuals experience many oral problems. Particularly xerostomia and inadaptation of dentures may lead to poor retention of maxillary complete dentures. Many patients use denture adhesives ; however, the influence of these adhesives on denture cleaning and denture function is not well understood in many cases. Therefore, oral moistures is often recommended instead of denture adhesive. The purpose of this study was to clarify the selection criteria of denture adhesives or oral moisturizers by maxillary complete denture wearers.
Methods: Twenty-five maxillary edentulous subjects were enrolled in this study. Denture adhesive and three oral moisturizers (liquid, gel, spray) administered for 3 days each. Patients were surveyed after each treatment (“the after-use questionnaire”) at the end of the study (“the final questionnaire”). Friedman test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used for statistical comparison. This study was conducted with the approval of the ethics committee of the Showa University School of Dentistry(2013－043).
Results: Immediately after use questionnaire, denture adhesive was evaluated as high for "stability", "chewing," "fitting", and "retention"(p<0.05). At the final questionnaire, denture adhesive was selected by 14/25 subjects and, oral moisturizers were selected by 11 /25 subjects. Patients who selected the denture adhesive evaluated the “stability” and “uncomfortable feeling” highly; patients who selected oral moisturizers evaluated the “dry feeling” highly(p<0.05).
Conclusions: These results suggest that “stability”, “uncomfortable feeling”, and “dry feeling” are the driving criteria in choosing either denture adhesive or oral moisturizers.