Online ISSN: 2577-5669

Chance to Avoid New Caries and Circumstances in Elderly Patients - A Retrospective Study

Main Article Content

Trishala A, Arthi Balasubramanian
» doi: 10.5455/jcmr.2020.11.04.26

Abstract

The prevalence of coronal and root surface caries are found to be high among the elderly populations globally causing tooth loss. This tooth loss affects their quality of life by compromising the chewing ability. Thus there is a need to identify the factors which increase the risk for dental caries among them.Cariogram is a software developed to assess the caries risk. The aim of this study was to evaluate the chance to avoid new caries and circumstances in elderly patients. A retrospective study was conducted using the patient records of University hospital from June 2019 - April 2020. Consecutive case records of patients aged above 60 years with data on caries risk assessment by Cariogram, irrespective of gender was retrieved and statistically analysed. Frequency distribution, independent t test were employed with a level of significance set at p<0.05. The mean age among the elderly patients was 65.8 ± 5.1 years with 62.19% males and 37.81% females. The mean circumstances among males was 7.79 and females was 8.34. The mean estimated chance to avoid new caries among males was 47.79 and females was 46.06. There was a statistically significant association between the chance to avoid new caries and circumstances in patients above 60 years of age (p=0.025). The chance of avoiding new caries was higher in patients with low previous caries experience and no systemic diseases. Females have more caries risk than males among the elderly population

Article Details