Impact of Denture Usage Patterns on Dietary Quality and Food Avoidance Among Older Adults

Abstract

This study categorizes older adults living in rural areas by denture status, assesses the frequency of wearing dentures during meals, and determines whether denture status or use is associated with dietary quality or the number of foods avoided. A multi-ethnic population-based sample of adults ≥60 years (N=635) in the rural US was interviewed. Survey included denture use, removing dentures before eating, and foods avoided due to oral health problems. Dietary intakes were converted into Healthy Eating Index-2005 scores. Sixty percent wore removable dentures of some type; 55% never, 27% sometimes, and 18% always removed dentures when eating. More frequent removal was associated with lower dietary quality and more foods avoided. Those with severe tooth loss had the lowest dietary quality and avoided the most foods. Many rural older adults wear dentures. Learning how they adapt to denture use will offer insight into their nutritional self-management and help explain differences in dietary quality.

Oral health–related food selectivity among French independently living elders

“…Using food selectivity seems nowadays an appropriate method for investigating dietary variety. The number of oral discomfort–related avoided foods was presently lower within the present sample (older than 65 years and controls) than previously observed with elderly populations . The first reason may be that the questionnaire included food items with varying textures and flavours, which were not specifically challenging to eat .…”

“…Although food choice restriction is obviously associated with teeth loss, the number of avoided foods seems also increased when replacing them by means of partial or complete denture . The impact of denture is, however, a point of controversy, and present statistical analyses failed to show any significant effect of denture use on food selective behaviour.…”

“…The majority of questionnaires are based on challenging‐to‐eat foods and emphasised functional limitations in food choice of elderly people related to teeth loss, self‐rated oral health and removable denture use . Appraising total selectivity score with a list of French traditional dishes did not presently reveal any influence of age and oral conditions.…”

Ethnic Variation in Oral Health and Social Integration Among Older Rural Adults

“…As we note, this may indicate that those with no teeth have greater resources for dental care (tooth extraction and dentures). However, having dentures is not the only factor, as Savoca and colleagues (2011) show. How the dentures fit is important to their use.…”

“…The correlation of self-report and examination in those who had both was 0.92 (p<0.0001). Partial and complete dentures were extremely common among edentulous participants and did not provide sufficient variability to include in the analysis (Savoca, Arcury, Leng, Bell, Chen, Anderson, Kohrman, Gilbert & Quandt, 2011). Number of oral health problems is the sum of participant self-reports of current mouth or tooth pain, current ill-fitting dentures, current sore or bleeding gums, current dry mouth, and lifetime periodontal disease.…”