Oral Health Status and Oral Health Care among the Dependent Elderly at Muang, Phitsanulok,Thailand.

The objectives of this study were to survey the oral health status and describe the oral health care of dependent elderly in Muang, Phitsanulok. The subjects obtained by convenience sampling, were 70 dependent elderly with ADL score 0-4 in Muang, Phitsanulok. Data was collected via the oral health status examination and interview about oral health care.The data was analyzed by descriptive statistics. The results showed that most subjects (62.9%) had remain natural teeth but they had not occluding pairs of teeth (52%), most of them had dental caries (82.1%). Among the edentulous group found that majority of the study group were primary school level and low income. Among the dentate group revealed that 100 % of the study group had never flossed their teeth, 31.9 % brushed their teeth twice a day and 14.3% did not clean their mouth with any methods. The caregivers play the major role of dependent elderly oral health care.