Abstract
The goal of prosthetic treatment is to enhance the quality of life (QOL), especially for theelderly. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relation between the extent of missingteeth and the satisfaction of daily living for elderly people. At Kure city in Hiroshima prefecture, 3, 880 elderly people aged 65 and over were randomly selected and surveyed, using anoriginal questionnaire, about their oral condition and daily living, Of the respondents, 1, 502 were men (mean age 73) and 2, 288 were women (mean age 75). The proportion of respondentswearing dentures were; 23% (201/885) of the subjects with 20 and over remaining teeth, 79% (701/919) of those with 10 to 19 teeth, 86% (751/842) of those with one to nine teeth and 96% (1100/1144) of the totally edentulous. Multivariate analysis revealed that the significant factors insatisfaction for daily living were diet, living-worth, economic situation, feeling, communicationand volunteer. Especially, in subjects with less than 20 remaining teeth, diet was the most important factor for satisfaction of daily living. Although the satisfaction of daily living was almost the same between the group of denture wearers and non-wearers, diet, which was themost important factor for satisfaction of daily living for the wearers was not significant for the non-wearers. These results suggest that the satisfaction of daily living is affected by thenumber of remaining teeth.
