The characteristics of elderly patients seeking care at faculty of dentistry, chulalongkorn university during 2007-2009 and the development of dental service electronic database for the aged

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the characteristics and trend of the elderly patients at Faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University. The information of new-registered elderly patients from year 2007 to 2009 was collected from 1,320 dental treatment records by systematic random sampling method. For prosthodontic treatment aspect, 634 dental treatment records were selected from the new-registered elderly patient at post graduated prosthodontic clinic. For the subjects sampling from all new-registered elderly patients, the most common systemic conditions were hypertension, diabetes mellitus, heart disease and high cholesterol level, respectively. The most common oral complaint was tooth loss with inefficient chewing and/or needed newly prostheses. There were 38% of subject had perceived prosthodontic treatment need while 65% had normative prosthodontic treatment need. This survey found that the average number of occluding natural pairs of teeth was 2.8 pairs. The highest frequent prosthodontic treatment in elderly patients at post graduated prosthodontic clinic was removable denture (60%). The average waiting period for prosthodontic treatment was 134.1 days and the average prosthodontic treatment period was 155.4 days. There were decreasing in duration of waiting period and treatment period from year 2007 to 2009.