Frequency of Dry and Burning Mouth without Clinical Signs within the Elderly Admitted to Nursing Homes of Yazd Province

In recent years, the elderly people proportion in our community has increased due to the better public health accessibility and longer life expectancy. Oral health status of the elderly has a profound impact on their quality of life and social relationships. The aim of this study is to assess the frequency of dry mouth and burning mouth without any clinical signs between elders over the age of 65 in nursing homes in yazd province.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 225 institutionalized elderly from Sep 2012 to Aug 2012 in Yazd province. Dry mouth and burning mouth incidence were examined via applying a questionnaire and clinical procedures. Systemic disease background and history of medications usage were derived from the participant’s hospital records. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS (versions 17) applying chi-square statistical test to compare variables and the significance level was set at 5% (p<0.05).

Eventually 225 elderly were selected, among which 9 cases were excluded due to lack of owning consistent criteria of the study. 61.1% (132) participants were females and 38.9% were males, whose age range and average were 77±3 and 65-91, respectively. In this study, a significant relation was observed between the frequency of dry mouth and the gender (p=0.02), though no statistically significant relation was observed between burning mouth incidence and the gender (p=0.16).

Based on the study findings, it seems that dry mouth and burning mouth involve prevalent disturbing problems within the elderly. However, other studies are necessitated to achieve more accurate results.