Oral health and denture quality: a pilot study in Trinidad

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To assess the quality of dentures worn by a sample of the population in Trinidad and respondents' attitude towards their oral health and dentures. DESIGN AND METHODS: Respondents to advertisements in all the local newspapers for persons wearing full dentures were interviewed and examined clinically. Dentures were examined for processing defects. Mandibular functional movements were measured and dentures were evaluated for reproduction of these movements. RESULTS: In the 54 subjects studied none of the dentures were made to function with mandibular jaw movements. For the maxilla and mandibular dentures, 96.8 percent of the axial inclination of the teeth were set incorrectly. All of the denture extensions were found to be short and none had any retention or stability. None of the participants had post delivery visits. The majority (77.5 percent) of all the dentures had never been repaired and 61.3 percent had fractured teeth. A majority (51.6 percent) of participants were found to be in need of palliative treatment and 48.4 percent needed urgent treatment. The primary concerns of the participants were that they were slack (35.5 percent). The majority of dentures sampled (80.6 percent) were made by a dental technician who also did the clinical procedures. CONCLUSIONS: The dentures made in Trinidad fall below acceptable standards and majority were made without any relation to functional jaw movements. However, patients' compliance with their prostheses was high (75 percent). There is an urgent need to a concerted effort by health officials to standardize oral health care.(AU)