2016 Volume 31 Issue 1 Pages 18-27
In recent years, the number of remaining teeth in the elderly population has shown an increase. The study of periodontal disease in this case becomes important, because an increase in the number of teeth leads to greater suffering. However, there are only a few reports about periodontal disease among the community-dwelling elderly. The aim of this study was to investigate the actual conditions of periodontal disease among the urban community-dwelling elderly and examine what factors determine the code of Community Periodontal Index（CPI）as a high score. The subjects comprised 206 people aged ≧65 years who visited the medical examination at Tokyo I-ward.
We surveyed dental parameters such as the number of remaining teeth, CPI, and test results for periodontal microbial screening, and also dental-related items such as tooth brushing and frequency/absence of dental clinic visits, smoking, Mini Mental State Examination scores, medication status, and current medical history.
We observed that 26.7% of the subjects had a CPI of 4 and 48.1% had a CPI of 3. We divided the subjects into two groups based on presence of ＜20 or ≧20 teeth and examined the factors that determined a CPI of 4.
In the ＜20 teeth group, relevant independent factors were history of diabetes and tongue-coating adhesiveness. In the ≧20 teeth group, hypertension was the relevant independent factor.
As a result of the present study, we suggest that oral health professionals should take the presence of dental plaque, as well as tongue coat into consideration, in order to establish the hygiene habit of older periodontal patients with ＜20 teeth. Furthermore, it is necessary to consider to the history of systemic diseases such as hypertension when oral health providers managed periodontal disease for those with more than 20 teeth.
