Abstract
Purpose: This study investigates dental health and chewing ability of patients hospitalized in geriatric hospital, and compares the chewing ability for each factor that can be used as data for dental healthcare of senior citizens and basic data for denture insurance for the elderly. Methods: The 101 subjects of this study were selected from 178 patients hospitalized in a geriatric hospital located in Daegu Metropolitan City, excluding 77 patients who were being treated in the intensive care unit and who were unable to communicate. The chewing ability of the patients were measured using an evaluation scale based on foods consisting of 10 different hardnesses. Results: Patients with less than 21 teeth, those with dentures and patients who were less than satisfied with their dental conditions had difficulties in chewing hard food such as dried squid and radish kimchi, and the Chewing ability increased proportionally to the number of remaining teeth(p<0.001), appropriateness of the maxillary and mandibular dentures(p<0.005) and the level of dental satisfaction(p<0.001). Conclusion: This study is limited as the subjects were selected from a single hospital and the authors estimate that various studies will be necessary to investigate the Chewing ability of patients hospitalized in long-term hospitals. The subjects of this study did not receive any dental treatment while staying in the hospital and many of the subjects had bad fit denture or didn't have dentures or did not use dentures, although they have dentures, which calls for denture construction and prosthetics through dental treatment.
