Relationships among the health conditions, physical and mental conditions, nutritional conditions and activities of daily living, and conditions of denture wearing of elderly were assessed to determine the influence of denture wearing on the nutrient intake at multiple facilities. The total number of subjects was 12 outpatients with removable dentures in our clinic of Kyushu Dental University Hospital. The number of remaining teeth, occlusal support (Eichnerʼs classification), condition of the defect area (Kennedyʼs classification), ability to masticate based on the masticatory score on food intake, and solubility of glucose were measured as the dental conditions. OHIP-49, the physical component score (PCS), and mental component score (MCS) based on the 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36). Profile of mood states(POMS), mini nutritional assessment (MNA), body mass index (BMI), and barthel index (BI) were also evaluated. All subjects were divided into three groups; Group A (remaining tooth exist in both upper and lower jaws), Group B (remaining tooth exist in both upper or lower jaws), Group C (edentulous in both upper or lower jaws).
It was found that the more number of the remaining teeth increased, the more chewing ability increased significantly.
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