Oral health status of institutionalized elderly Cape Coloreds from the Cape Peninsula of South Africa

A study has been conducted to assess the oral health status and need for dental treatment among elderly Cape Coloreds resident in homes for the aged in the Cape Peninsula of South Africa. This paper describes the prevalence of diseases of the mouth with special reference to denture-induced lesions and white lesions of the oral mucosa. Dental caries was the most prevalent oral lesion (27.2%). The most common conditions of the soft tissues were leukoedema (24.4%) and leukoplakia (4.4% for the tongue; 20.4% for the remainder of the oral mucosa). Leukoedema and leukoplakia showed statistically highly significant correlations with tobacco habits. Men more commonly had a tobacco habit than women (P less than 0.002) and leukoplakia, leukoedema and depigmented lesions of the lips were significantly more common in men than in women. No significant difference could be proven statistically when the frequency of irritative fibrous hyperplasia in females was compared with that in males.