Oral health in older adults with dementia living in different environments: a propensity analysis

This study was to compare oral health in dementia patients living in different environments. One hundred two dementia patients living in the community, assisted living facilities and nursing homes (NH) were retrospectively selected from a community-based dental clinic. Participants’ sociodemographics, medical, dental, functional, and cognitive assessment were documented at arrival. Poisson and negative-binomial regressions were developed to assess impacts of residential status on the number of missing teeth and number of caries/retained roots, respectively. Oral health was poor in study participants, regardless of their residential status. Nearly 30% of NH residents were edentulous, about two times higher than those in the community. Dentate participants averaged about 5.9 caries/retained roots at arrival. Forty-four percent of community-dwelling participants and 54% of NH residents presented with five or more caries/retained roots. Holding other factors constant, living environment was not associated with oral health measures, indicating oral health had declined in dementia patients before they were placed into NH.