Seft-perception of oral health in elderly porter of dentures

Abstract

Introduction: when we relating the quality of life with the oral health, incorporates the patient's perception; however the information about self-perception of oral health in older patients with dental prosthesis, it’s no take into consideration neither the methods nor to measure it. Objective: the aim of this article was to expose the theorist-practical bases of the self-perception of oral health in elder porter of dental prosthesis and the indicators for assessing. Material and Methods: abibliographic review was conducted where 58 reference materials were consulted (50 articles, five books, two thesis and one annual statistic of health in Cuba). All were obtained of the databases Scielo, EBSCO, Google Academic, PubMed, Medline and Lilacs, using the key words: quality of life, self-perception of oral health, elderly, dentures porter, satisfaction, indexes. Results: it was found that the quality of life keeps relationship with the self-perception of oral health in elderly patients with dentures. The self-perception can vary according to the sex, scholar level, prosthesis type and previous experience in the use, among other factors. To measure it are used the oral health impact profile (OHIP) and the geriatric oral healthassessment index (GOHAI), being this the most used. Conclusions: the self-perception of oral health is an indicator of quality of life in elderly patient’sporter of dentures and the GOHAI it has demonstrated to be an instrument with high sensibility to clinical variables allowing to detect necessities of attention with bigger easiness besides that it doesn't require of qualified personnel for its application.Key words: quality of life, older, oral health, dental prosthesis, self-perception, indicator