Dental health of community-living older people attending secondary healthcare: a cross-sectional comparison between those with and without diagnosed mental illness

Abstract

Dental problems are common in community-living older people, especially those with some natural remaining teeth and those with mental illness. There is a need to develop integrated mental health and dental care services for older people with emphasis on prevention of dental problems.

A comparison of the dental status and treatment needs of older adults with and without chronic mental illness in Sevilla, Spain

“…Among dentate patients, we found cognitive impairment to be associated with a reduced number of teeth and an increased need for dental treatment. Other authors have found similar results (11). …”

“…Suboptimal oral health has been self-reported among patients with SMI (3). Several reports detailing the oral health status of psychiatric patients in Denmark (4), The Netherlands (5), Italy (6), Spain (7), India (8), South Wales (9), Israel (10), United Kingdom (11) and Turkey (12) have revealed that mental illness and the medications used to treat the disorder can cause and magnify the severity of dental diseases with particular emphasis on caries experience (13). …”

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Association Between Poor Oral Health and Severe Mental Illness

“…2). We used the same community controls for two studies and so divided the number by two for each comparison (40,47,61).…”

Medical comorbidity in psychogeriatric patients

“…Purandare and colleagues [15] compared the dental health of older people who had psychiatric illness with those without. In general, the 103 people who had a psychiatric illness were younger and physically healthier but cognitively, socially and functionally more impaired than the control group (99 people).…”