Journal of Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences

Background & Aim: Aging is accompanied with biological changes in the body organs especially mouth and tooth. Lack of adequate care can lead to loss of oral and dental health in the elderly.  Due to the importance of this issue, the present study aimed at determining the oral and dental status of the elderly in urban and rural areas of Torbat Heydariyeh in 2015

 Methods: This is a descriptive/analytical study conducted on 450 elderly subjects living in Torbat Heydarieh through convenience sampling. The data were collected using questionnaire and examination form and analyzed by SPSS 21 using Chi-Square test.

Results: the mean age of study subjects was 70.3±8.57. 48.9% of the elderlies were male and the rest were female. Also, 55.1% of study subjects were living in rural areas. 256 study subjects (56.9%) were fully edentulous and 23.8% had problems with chewing. A few cases (16.4%) had referred to a dentist in the past year. The most (58.7%) and least (1.6%) reason for referring to the dentist was toothache and consultation/checkup, respectively. There was a significant relationship between living place and edentulous index (p=0.01).

Conclusion: Being edentulous was very prevalent among the elderly. Thus, education and active care in different periods of life lead to reduce edentulous index in the elderly.