Relationship between Dental Caries Prevalence and Elderly’s Quality Of Life

Introduction: Tooth loss is experienced by the elderly as age increases the function of the oral cavity and the status of the oral cavity is closely related to physical, mental and social health. Physical and mental health has an impact on quality of life that will affect social interaction which ultimately impacts on the quality of life of the elderly. This study aimed to identify the relationship between dental caries and quality of life influenced by oral and dental health in the elderly. Methods: This study used cross sectional analytical method. Ninety-one respondents aged 45-90 years old were examined. The process of collecting data was done usinh the dental and oral health status of the WHO. To see the quality of life of elderly people, WHOQOL-BREF was used. Both types of data obtained were processed using statistical analysis to see the correlation. Results: Cross tabulation between the decay index and the quality of life of the physical domain of the respondents showed 1.31 higher risk to have poor physical health compared to those with low decay index (OR=1.31). In the domain of psychological health, respondents with high decay index had a 1.12 higher risk of having poor psychological health (OR=1.12). DMF index in the elderly with the social relations domain showed 1.50 higher risk for having a poor social relationship (OR=1.50). Conclusion: Elderly people with high DMFT index do not reduce quality of life, but quality of life will decrease if oral and dental health decreases.
Keywords: aged, dental care for aged, dental caries, quality of life.