Oral Condition and Microflora of Denture Plaque of Geriatric Inpatients. Part 1. Preliminary Survey

Dental treatment must meet the needs of the rapidly increasing elderly people in Japan. In addition, geriatric inpatients also increased with the increase of elderly people. Investigation was carried out to determine the oral condition and microflora in denture plaque of elderly patients in two geriatric hospitals and Tokushima Dental Hospital. The difference between healthy patients and geriatric inpatients was. discussed. The results of the preliminary survey were as follows:1. Inpatients in a geriatric hospital were more elderly, and the frequency of edentulous patients was fairly high. The prognosis of the denture was poor because of high frequencies of low residual ridge and oral diskinesia.2. Denture plaque of geriatric inpatients had the following characteristics compared to that of healthy elderly patients.1) Numbers of total bacteria, Streptococci, Candida, and Staphylococci in isolated denture plaque of the geriatric inpatients were larger than those of healthy patients.2) Linear relationships between numbers of total bacteria and Streptococci and between numbers of Candida and Staphylococci were found.3) The frequency of MRSA in the geriatric inpatients was higher than in the healthy patients.4) Numbers of total bacteria and Streptococci in denture plaque obtained in the inpatients with heart disease and cerebrovascular accident were much larger than those in the inpatients without these diseases.