Oral Health Status in Adults Aged 30-75 Years with Some Mental Problems among a Sample of Iranian Population

Oral health is one of the most important aspects of public health and people with mental health problems are at higher risk of oral diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the oral health status of adults aged 30-75 years with some mental health problems in a sample of Iranian population.

This cross-sectional study was performed using Persian cohort baseline data in Shahedieh, Yazd. In this study, 2287 people aged 30 to 75 years with a history of some mental problems (depression, learning disabilities, memory disorders, other psychiatric disorders) who were gradually included in the study between 12/5/2015 and 21/9/2017.  In this study, data related to the DMFT (Decayed, Missing, and Filled Teeth) index and the status of oral health behaviors were analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the basic characteristics of the participants and Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to evaluate the difference between the mean DMFT index in demographic variables. The significance level of the test was considered 0.05.

Most of the participants (70%) were female and their mean age was 48.17 ± 9.17. The mean and standard deviation of DMFT score among all participants (with and without dentures) was 20.99± 8.4. The mean and standard deviation of missing, decayed and filled teeth were 1.13 ±11.12, 1.96 ±3.15 and 3.9 ± 4.66, respectively. Of the subjects, 23.7% used teeth floss, 1.8% used mouthwash and 24.9% once, 3.5% twice, 1.3% three times a day, 19.2% did not brush at all and 22% did not brush because of dentures. There was a significant relationship between DMFT (p <0.001) and the variables of number of brushing times, flossing, age, social class, level of education, marital status.

DMFT index is undesirable among people with some mental problems and this index is associated with most demographic variables and oral health behaviors. Training and raising the level of awareness in these people is recommended.