Oral impacts of number of natural teeth and posterior occluding pairs on daily performance of an elderly population

Background: Globally, poor oral health among older people has been assessed in terms of high levels of tooth loss, dental caries experience, high prevalence rates of periodontal disease, xerostomia, and oral precancer/cancer. Aim: The aim of the study is to compare impacts of total number of natural teeth (NT) and posterior occluding pairs (POPs) present in the oral cavity on daily performances among elderly population. Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study which included 300 subjects recruited through convenience sampling from a physiotherapy center. The included subjects were asked in a face-to-face interview about their demographic information (i.e., age and gender), tobacco habits (type and frequency), oral hygiene habits (frequency and material used), oral health-related quality of life, and various symptoms of xerostomia. Impacts on daily performances were measured by the use of oral impacts on daily performances index. Clinical examination was done to measure number of NT and POPs. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21, IBM Inc., and for inferential statistics, Mann-Whitney U-test and Chi-square tests were used. Level of statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Results: The overall mean age of the study population was found to be 63.81 +/- 4.50 with gender wise no statistically significant difference (males = 63.82 +/- 4.13, females = 63.79 +/- 4.94; P <= 0.05). Overall, mean number of NT present in the study population was found to be 24.76 +/- 7.21 with 25.90 +/- 6.29 among males and 23.32 +/- 8.03 among females. Mean number of NT present was significantly more among males as compared to females (Mann-Whitney U-test, P = 0.003). Conclusion: Number of NT and POPs were found to be the significant predictors of daily performances among elderly population.