Oral Health Comparison Between Hospitalized and Not-hospitalized Old Patients

Objective: To make an oral health comparison between hospitalized and not-hospitalized old patients aged between 65 and 105 years. Methods: The WHO Collaborating centre of Milan carried out an extensive survey including 364 old patients (110 male and 254 female). According to the WHO guidelines for epidemiological survey it has been decided to evaluate DMFT and CPITN in two different groups. Group A: 258 hospitalized old persons living in three different Milanese structures. Group B: 106 not-hospidalized old persons coming from the day-time Centre for Old people of Corsico (Milan). Results: Group A – DMFT 1,84 (D 0,95 M 0,77 F 0,12); The percentage of typology of periodontal tissue is: Healthy 7,35%; Bleeding 44,57%; Calculus 23,25%; Pockets 4-5 mm 0,38%; not noticed because of edentulism 15,3%. The average number of sextants is: Healthy 0,79; Bleeding 3,05; Calculus 0,64 ; Pockets 4-5 mm 0,13; excluded sextants 1,39. Group B - DMFT 2,67 (D 1,24 M 0,94 F 0,55); The percentage of typology of periodontal tissue is: Healthy 1,88%; Bleeding 40,56%; Calculus 33,96%; Pockets 4-5 mm 16,98%; not noticed because of edentulism 1,91%. The average number of sextants is: Healthy 0,66; Bleeding 3,5; Calculus 0,7; Pockets 4-5 mm 0,24; Deep Pockets 0,13; excluded sextants 0,77. The 42,3% of patients is resulted to be edentulous (49,6% of hospitalized patients, 24,5% of not-hospitalized ones). Conclusions: The values of DMFT and CPITN of group B have resulted to be higher than those ones of groupA. In particular value D has a higher prevalence among the other values. The visited hospitalized old patients have presented a better oral health status compared to the not-hospitalized patients’.