[Adaptation of Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) index for measuring impact of oral health on quality of life in elderly to Serbian language].

BACKGROUND/AIM: There is an evidence of increasing necessity to use indices for measuring impact of oral health on the elderly life quality for the purposes of the state-of-the art clinical dental practice. It is at least because data obtained in that way suggest whether a treatment is required, help in deciding upon a kind of dental treatment, as well as in evaluating the extent of success of the applied therapeutical procedures. The aim of the study was to translate into Serbian the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14) index and to assess its validity in practice as its initial verification in the Serbian speaking areas. METHODS: The OHIP-14 index was translated into Serbian and check-up of its easy-to-understand done in a group of 30 common elderly (above 65 years of age) with a total or partial prosthetic restoration. The study individuals did not fill in a questionnaire by themselves, instead the questiones were put orally. If needed, additional explanations were given with no any suggesting a possible answer. RESULTS: Considering the given answers and the shown need for additional explanations to some questions indicated that the question number 5 in the OHIP-14, namely "Have you been selfconscious because of your mouth or dentures?" (Serbian, "Da li ste bili samosvesni usled problema sa Vasim ustima i protezama?") cannot be adequately translated into Serbian because even 28 (93.3%) of the tested individuals were not able to understand it inspite the given explanations. Other questions were well understood, thus allowing to use the answers to them as score for a certain discomfort. Of all the tested, 13 (43%) denied any psychosocial disorders or experienced them only rarely, while 60% of the tested answered affirmately to the question "Do you consider your life generally less satisfactory due to the problems induced by teeth and dentures?" pointing out a significant impact of oral health condition on the quality of life. CONCLUSION: The OHIP-14 index renders valuable and dependable data on the quality of life of elderly with dentures, thus it is favorable to use it in practice. Due to difficulties in understanding the question number 5, however, it was ommited off the final Serbian language version. Anyhow, its validity in a more numerous test group should be evaluated, as well as other indices introduced into Serbian speaking area to let a comparison made and the most suitable questionnaire used.

Retention of telescopic denture in elderly patients with maximum partially edentulous arch.

UNLABELLED: The telescopic denture is one possible solution for prosthetic rehabilitation for a partially dentate arch with few remaining teeth, which is the reason why it is usually considered in elderly patients. The system of double crowns consists of the male component of attachment or patrix, which is cemented to the abutment tooth, and the female component of attachment or matrix, which is the removable part of the restoration. Retention force represents resistance to those forces which tend to separate the partial denture and supporting tissue in the occlusal direction. Its optimal value is 5-9 N per each patrix and it should strictly be between these limits as a stronger or weaker force will endanger the functionality of the denture or damage the supporting tissue of the abutment teeth. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to establish the exact value of the individual and total retention force of the completed telescopic system. METHOD: The Bredent dynamometer was used for measuring these values. The study involved measuring the individual force of separation of 50 patrix-matrix components, and total force of 20 partial dentures of various designs retained by double crowns made in the Dental Laboratory of the Clinic for Prosthetic Dentistry, Faculty of Stomatology, Belgrade University. The research was carried out in the period from January 2006 to October 2006. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The results showed different values of separation force - from very low values to those exceeding optimal limits. A reduction in the force of separation is necessary in the case of excessive tightness. If there was looseness between patrix and matrix, the cylindrical components of double crowns need to be lined by a suitable composite material.