Condição de saúde bucal em idosos residentes no município de Manaus/AM

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to characterize the oral health conditions of elderly people residents in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. The study was a population based cross-sectional study involving 667 elderly people between 65 to 74 years of age randomly selected. The methodology based on SB-Brasil project was employed to collect data regarding socioeconomic characteristics, access to dental services, self-perception of oral health and GOHAI index. In addition, dental clinical examinations were conducted to determine the prevalence of the main oral health diseases. Firstly, the Verbal Fluency Test was applied to asses the cognitive function regarding the capacity to recover information from long term. The majority of the sample was female, with lighter-skinned black ethinicity and with less than 9 years of schooling. Furthermore, most participants reported not holding car with a mean per capita income of R$711,00. The mean of DMFT was 29.0 (+ 4.3) and the missing component accounted for 95% of the index. The prevalence of edentulism was 52.2% and the prosthesis use was more frequent in upper arcade (87.7%). The frequency of total prosthesis need in upper arcade was 42.9%, while in lower arcade partial prosthesis need was 33.7%. Periodontal condition was assessed in only 14.3% of the sextants as other sextants were excluded due to edentulism. The frequency of dental calculus was the periodontal condition more prevalent. The access to dental services occurred mainly through private health system (61.3%) and the main reason for seeking dental services was routine visit. The assessment of self-perceived oral health was reported good and great in all aspects, with positive association with lower number of teeth. The self-perception of oral health in the studied population was not in accordance with the poor oral clinical condition observed. This suggests the paramount need of attention to oral health of older people.