Frequency of Systemic Diseases and Oral Lesions Among the Institutionalized Elderly Subjects in the Northeast of Iran

Abstract

Abstract Background: With ageing, the number of systemic diseases and the consumption of drugs increase. Moreover, some oral lesions, especially denture-related lesions, are commonly observed. Aim and Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of systemic diseases and oral lesions in the elderly in the Mashhad Geriatric Institutes. Methods: Institutionalized elderly people, who could cooperate for oral examination, enrolled in this descriptive cross-sectional study. The frequency of oral lesions and their systemic diseases were recorded in the self-made checklist. For statistical analysis, Student’s t-test and Chi-square test were utilized. The significance level was considered to be 0.05. Results: During the study, 224 elderly subjects with a mean age of 75.63 ± 11.22 years were evaluated. The mean duration of residency in the elderly nursing centres was 1.87 ± 1.37 years. Hypertension, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes were the most common systemic diseases, and about 47% of the patients had two or multiple concurrent diseases. Among participants, 97.1% had at least one oral lesion. The most common oral lesions were fissured tongue (75%), sublingual varicosity (68.3%) and hairy or coated tongue (38.4%), respectively, which are classified as normal variations of oral mucosa. The most common pathological lesions were denture stomatitis, frictional keratosis and lichenoid reactions. Conclusion: Regarding to the high frequency of oral lesions among ageing people, regular examination of the oral mucosa for early detection of oral lesions and appropriate treatments is recommended.