Oral health conditions in institutionalized elderly Brazilians: an integrative review

Abstract

The aim of this study was to review the literature on identifying the oral health status of elderly people living in long-term care institutions. This is an integrative review of the literature carried out using a search strategy in the following databases: BVS, SciELO, PubMed and Portal de Periódicos CAPES. The search for articles was carried out on a general form in June 2024 using the following descriptors (and their synonyms) with the Boolean operator AND: elderly; "oral health"; Brazil; "long-stay institution for the elderly". We selected studies published from 2012 onwards, with no language restrictions, which met the inclusion and exclusion criteria adopted and addressed the oral health conditions of institutionalized elderly people. The search resulted in 163 publications in the four databases searched. After reading the titles and abstracts and applying the inclusion criteria, 13 articles remained which were read and used in full. The main oral health conditions of the institutionalized elderly were high edentulism, high need for dentures and correction of old dentures, presence of caries and periodontal disease and poor hygiene of dentures. In addition, the elderly are highly functionally dependent and in a fragile condition. It is concluded that institutionalized elderly Brazilians have unsatisfactory oral health conditions.

Keywords: long-term care institutions, elderly people, oral health.