Ryutaro Uchikawa
Matsumoto Dental University, Japan
Title: Environmental factors to affect the number of the remaining teeth in elderly.
Biography
Biography: Ryutaro Uchikawa
Abstract
The maintenance of oral function affects the health of the whole body. Therefore it is very important to leave many tooth until it becomes old. Then we investigated environmental factors and methods of cleaning teeth to give the number of the residual teeth in the elderly. Forty-four elderly people (23 men and 21 female, mean age: 73.7±7.28) were enrolled in this study. The number of remaining teeth, age, quantity of stimulated saliva, stimulated salivary buffering capacity, oral bacteria (mutans streptococci), PCR (plaque control record), the number of brushing per day, brushing time, using of supporting tool and the fluorine application were investigated and demanded those correlations. Furthermore, we divided participants into two groups, more than 20 or 20 teeth and less than 20 teeth. These result of the nine factors was compared between two groups. The number of the remaining teeth correlated with buffering capacity, using of supporting tool or fluorine application (Spearman’s correlation coefficient: p＜0.05). In the 2 groups, the significant difference was recognized in buffering ability, SM bacteria quantity, the number of brushing times and fluorine application (Mann-Whitney U test : p＜0.05 ). It was thought that to remain teeth in elderly, a high buffering capacity or less SM bacteria in saliva is necessary. In addition, it was suggested that it is important to use supporting tool for cleaning on the teeth and receive fluorine application in a lifestyle.