Romanian Journal of Medical and Dental Education (Jul 2020)

ASSESSMENT OF ORAL HEALTH OF PATIENTS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS IN IASI

  • Carina Balcos,
  • Iulia Saveanu,
  • Dana Budala,
  • Claudia Cristina Tărniceriu,
  • Irina Grădinaru,
  • Ion Hurjui,
  • Mihaela Mitrea,
  • Raluca Jipu,
  • Loredana Liliana Hurjui,
  • Andrei Nicolau,
  • Adina Armencia,
  • Ramona Feier

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 2
pp. 77 – 87

Abstract

Read online

Patients with mental disorders have a series of general and oral health problems correlated to specific psychiatric drugs, along with the difficulty of behavior and concentration, preventing them from respecting the real need for oral care. Many people affected by these disorders cannot perform oral hygiene satisfactorily. This is exacerbated by the prolonged use of mouth-drying medicines, as well as by the excessive use of tobacco products and alcohol, which contribute to poor oral health. The aim of this study is to evaluate evaluate the oral health of mentally ill patients who had medical assistance at the Dentistry Clinic of St. Spiridon Hospital in Iasi. Matherial and methods:A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted between October 2016 and May 2017 on a number of 30 psychiatric patients under treatment at the Faculty of General Medicine and Dentistry.A well-structured questionnaire was applied to collect information on the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents,clinical evaluation of oral health status was performend using EGOHID assesement correlated with the general health status and specific psychiatric medication. Results: Regarding the psychiatric disorders that the 30 patients presented, their distribution was: 33.3% with schizophrenia, 26.7% depression, 30% bipolar disorder, 16.7% paranoid disorder and 16.7% with mixed dissorder. For the associated general pathology, diabetes was associated in a proportion of 27%, liver diseases 20%, thyroid diseases 16.7%, kidney diseases 10% and cardiovascular diseases 24%. As for medication, the highest frequency was recorded for the drugs Haldol (73.3%), Carbamazepine (46%), Clonazepam (43.3%), Diazepam (30%) and Amitril (16%), producing different modiffications in terms of saliva flow, buffer capacity and pH, resulting modifications in the oral health status. Conclusions: Patients with mental illness had significantly altered values ​​for salivary pH, salivary flow and buffer capacity of saliva in the sense of a marked decrease of values in patients with depression and bipolar disorder, compared to patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. There were no significant differences between salivary pH, salivary flow, or buffer capacity in monotherapy and multitherapy patients.

Keywords