Impact of the Knowledge and Awareness of Dental Caries in Elderly Patients Attending in the Primary Health Care in Riyadh at Saudi Arabia 2023

Abstract

Background:

Dental caries is one of the major oral diseases which cause pain and infection and can impede quality of the life in elderly. The consequence of severe dental caries is tooth loss which impacts negatively on individual’s aesthetics, function, self-esteem and quality of life. This induced a major biological, financial and social burden on elderly patients, health systems and societies. It also highlighted the trend of caries that shifted from children and adults to the elderly with the third peak at around the age of 70, due to the appearance of root caries, study, in 2019, the United Nations estimated that the aging population will be doubled by 2039, with one in six persons at the age of 65 or more . With increasing life expectancy, people retain their teeth for longer . It is expected to see a further increase in untreated caries in this growing population. Ageing, multimorbidity and polypharmacy may increase caries risk in the older adults . Their underlying medical conditions, functional disability and cognitive impairment make dental treatment highly challenging, and unavoidably increase the burden in our health care system .

Aim of the study: To assessment the impact of the knowledge and awareness of dental caries in elderly patients attending in the Primary health care in Riyadh at Saudi Arabia 2023. Method: cross sectional study conducted at outpatient dental clinics in primary health care center in in Riyadh at Saudi Arabia in Sample population consists of Saudi out patients aged 60 <80 years attending. Our total participants were (200).

Results:. Show among the elderly patients regarding age majority of the study groups from the ≥75 years were (44.0%), regarding the relationships with their grandparents the majority of the respondents they are not alive were (41.0%), the education status the majority of the respondents medium were (29.0%), the you smoke the most of participant answer No were (63.0%) while Yes were (37.0%) .

Conclusion:The oral health status of elderly people was found to be poor. Hence, it is concluded from this study that tooth loss is higher among the geriatric group  and is associated with many demographic and behavioral risk indicators. Dentists in had reasonable levels of knowledge regarding the importance of  in caries management. However, they did not fully implement certain concepts, such as caries risk assessment and the recently recommended criteria for the diagnosis of caries, in their everyday clinical practice.