The need for orthopedic dental services for the elderly population of Kazakhstan

Abstract

<b>Objective</b>: To determine the orthopedic dental status of the elderly population of Kazakhstan using clinical and diagnostic determinants.<br /> <b>Methods:</b> The dental status of 708 patients from three institutions in Almaty, Kazakhstan, was recorded using WHO dental questionnaires. The patients were divided into groups according to their age and sex, and modern statistical methods were used to process the data. Through the construction of tables and graphs, calculation of relative values, and assessment of the reliability of the differences in the data, we determined if there were any differences between the groups.<br /> <b>Results: </b>The study revealed that most patients who needed orthopedic dental care were 60 years of age and older. The older the age of patients with registered diagnoses of partial and complete adentia, the greater the need for removable prosthetics. The most common type of orthopedic treatment required for these patients was removable dentures. Analysis of the quantitative relationship between the need for orthopedic dental care and patients’ gender revealed the following patterns: the critical value of Chi-square at the significance level p≤0.0001 was 23.95, the exact Fisher criterion was 0.0000 (p=0.0000), and the calculated Cramer’s V criterion and the conjugacy coefficient showed the relationship between the variables were at the levels of 0.17 and 0.18, respectively.<br /> <b>Conclusions:</b> Owing to the aging population in Kazakhstan, and indeed the world, the problem of medical adaptation and social rehabilitation of older age groups is pertinent, and our findings argue that the introduction of geriatric dental services in Kazakhstan is warranted.