Oral health of patients on psychotropic medications: a study of outpatients in Queensland.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the oral health of psychiatric patients on psychotropic medication, and compare this to Queensland and national data. METHODS: We interviewed and examined 50 patients on medication at two outpatient clinics in South-east Queensland, in 2010. These areas had unfluoridated water till 2009. RESULTS: One-third of the sample had not visited a dentist in the previous 2 years. One-half reported brushing their teeth once a day; 11% stated they never brushed. The mean of decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) was 17.7 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 16.9 - 18.5), significantly higher than the state (13.1) and national (12.8) averages. Almost one-half of dental decay was untreated, compared to the state and national average of one-quarter. CONCLUSIONS: The oral health of this subgroup within the community is substantially worse than the general population and there are substantially greater treatment needs. Achieving equity in oral health care for these individuals has substantial resource and management implications.

Tooth loss in Sri Lankan adults.

AIM: To determine the prevalence and correlates of tooth loss in Sri Lankan adults. DESIGN: A descriptive cross sectional study. SETTING: Colombo district of Sri Lanka. PARTICIPANTS: Adults aged 20 years and above. METHODS: Data were collected by means of an interviewer administered questionnaire and an oral examination. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of tooth loss was 81.6% while 1.9% of the sample was edentulous. The prevalence rates of tooth loss in the 20-39, 40-59 and ≥ 60-year-old were 71%, 93% and 96%, respectively, while 0%, 1.5% and 11.4% were edentulous in the three groups. Age (OR = 1.10; 95% CI = 1.08-1.11), having received 11 or more years of education (OR = 0.38; 95% CI = 0.15-0.97), use of fluoride toothpaste (OR = 0.44; 95% CI = 0.30-0.66), brushing frequency (OR = 0.62; 95% CI = 0.43-0.89) and use of dental services (OR = 2.08; 95% CI = 1.12-3.84) were significantly associated with having more than 12 missing teeth. CONCLUSIONS: The overall prevalence of tooth loss is high among Sri Lankan adults.

Number of natural teeth and oral impacts: a study on sri lankan adults.

The aim of the study was to determine the association between the number of natural teeth and oral impacts in Sri Lankan adults. The sample consisted of 476, 40-59 and 452, ≥60 year olds. Oral impacts were assessed using a validated Sinhalese translation of the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 scale. A receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to determine the number of natural teeth that would best discriminate those with oral impacts from those without. Oral impacts were reported by 26% of the 40-59 year olds and 34% of the older individuals. In both groups there was a significant negative correlation between the number of teeth present and oral impacts. The ROC curve for the 40-59 year olds gave an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.758 (95% CI = 0.702-0.814; P < 0.001) with an optimal cut-off of 24/25 teeth while for the ≥60 year olds, the AUC of the ROC curve was 0.737 (95% CI = 0.684-0.790; P < 0.001) with an optimal cut-off of 18/19 teeth. Based on the ROC curves the optimal cutoffs of the number of natural teeth that best discriminated between those with and without oral impacts for 40-59 and ≥60 year olds were 24-25 and 18-19, respectively.