[Do the elderly receive adequate dental care? Determinants of the use of dental services by urban dwellers aged between 60 and 90 - Part I (author's transl)].

The paper constitutes an extract from a field study carried out in Berlin (West), in which 1,512 persons aged between 60 and 90 were questioned and medically examined. One of the aims was to determine the relations obtaining between environmental conditions and the capacity of the elderly to preserve their own health. Part of this is the use of health services. The following presentation is an examination of the factors determining the use of dental care. Included were - chewing capacity (subjective chewing difficulties, medical assessment of chewing capacity, and of the dentures) - accessibility of dentists - socio-economic status health well-being - life satisfaction In the second part groups of test persons are compared, which differ from one another both in regard to utilization behavior, and to chewing capacity.