ORAL MUCOSAL LESIONS AND ORAL HYGIENE HABITS IN THE HOME-LIVING ELDERLY

A large epidemiological health investigation, the Helsinki Ageing Stud y (HAS), was performed in 1989-1991 in Helsinki, Finland. We report he re the prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in 338 76-, 81- and 86-year- old home-living elderly people, who completed the oral health investig ation at the Institute of Dentistry, University of Helsinki. One or mo re lesions were found in 128 subjects (38%). Fifty-one per cent of the edentulous complete-denture wearers and 31% of the elderly with some natural teeth had mucosal lesions. The most common finding was inflamm ation under the denture, which occurred alone or combined with other l esions in 25% of the denture wearers. The three most common mucosal ch anges not related to denture wearing were coated changes of the tongue (7%), angular cheilitis (6%) and varicose veins under the tongue (4%) . No differences were found in the number of mucosal lesions among the three age groups. Angular cheilitis and inflammation under removable dentures were more frequent in women than in men. However, no other di fferences were found in the presence of mucosal lesions between sexes. The total number of mucosal lesions correlated positively with the nu mber of medications used daily. Ninety-six per cent of the subjects wi th complete dentures, and 98% of those with some natural teeth reporte d cleaning their dentures at least once a day. Of the denture wearers, 88% reported cleaning their oral mucosa also, as part of their oral h ygiene routine. The presence of mucosal lesions was related to self-re ported cleaning of the denture-bearing mucosa. However, no association was observed between cleaning frequency and presence of mucosal chang es.