A survey assessing modes of maintaining denture hygiene among elderly patients

OBJECTIVE: To determine the denture hygiene habits in complete denture wearers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, a self-administered structured questionnaire was developed to know the attitude of the patients from the Department of Prosthodontics regarding denture hygiene. The study sample consisted of totally 500 subjects, which included 284 (56.8%) males and 216 (43.2%) females. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 15.0 with Chi-square (χ(2)) test at P < 0.05. RESULTS: Nearly half of the subjects cleaned their dentures daily once. Participants from the younger age group and who had been wearing dentures since 2 years maintained better frequency of cleaning. The majority of these subjects used water and brush for denture cleansing. After seeing the condition, more than half of the dentures were rated as poor (60%). There was significant difference between all the groups on comparison (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Poor condition of complete dentures seen in the population is mainly due to irregular cleansing habits and also less usage of cleansing solutions. Dentists should give proper instructions regarding maintenance of denture hygiene.