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Poor oral health is preventable. Untreated dental decay and periodontal disease can lead to pain, swelling, abscesses, and infection and can lead to tooth loss. In addition, poor oral health can impact self-esteem and physical appearance as well as basic daily activities like sleeping, talking, and eating.
Older adults may face more barriers to accessing care compared to children and younger adults. Typically dental insurance provided by employers is lost at retirement and Medicare dental coverage is limited. This results in older adults paying for dental care out of pocket. In addition, residents of long term care facilities may face additional barriers related to transportation and limited mobility compared to older adults living independently.
METHODS:
The Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors Basic Screening Survey protocol was utilized to collect baseline data on the oral health status of older adults. Dental hygienists were trained and calibrated to collect information on 12 indicators by looking in the mouths of participants with flashlights and disposable mouth mirrors.
The 72 counties in Wisconsin were classified as urban, suburban, and rural. The nursing homes in the state were stratified by urban-rural category and randomly selected within each group. A convenience sample of senior meal sites were matched to each selected nursing home by location.
Complete data are available on 1,099 participants from 24 nursing homes and 350 participants from 27 meal sites. Results for nursing homes were weighted to account for sampling design and non-response. Frequencies, confidence intervals, and chi-square tests were calculated using proc surveyfreq in SAS version 9.2. Data for meal site participants were not weighted because they were a convenience sample.
RESULTS:
Among nursing home participants 33 percent were edentulous, compared to about 25 percent at the senior meal sites. In addition, about 31 percent of nursing home participants had untreated decay compared to 23 percent of meal site participants. Also, about 38 percent of nursing home participants and 22 percent of meal site participants had no functional occlusal contacts, which can greatly impact the ability to chew food. Among dentate participants at the nursing homes, nearly 40 percent needed dental care prior to their regularly scheduled checkup.
CONCLUSIONS:
Older adults in Wisconsin have a significant amount of dental disease. Because this population faces substantial barriers to accessing dental care, public health programs, policies, and resources need to be targeted to reduce oral disease among older adults.