Dental care, prevention, and knowledge level in older adults

Abstract

The investigative work was based on the project "Health Promotion from Sports Medicine: quality of life of the elderly and patients with chronic diseases engaging in systemic physical activity", focused on an educational intervention on oral health for older adults at the Grandparents' Circle of the Provincial Center for Sports Medicine of Granma, with the purpose of deepening knowledge about the health and oral education possessed by the elderly. The predominant age group was 71-79-year-old females with oral diseases. It was determined that the predominant level of knowledge was deficient, identifying the need for learning. It was observed how oral health influences the quality of life of older adults and affects the performance of their daily activities. The study aimed at an educational intervention strategy for dental care in the elderly to raise knowledge levels with a preventive and educational approach. An intervention is proposed through promotion, prevention, and health education for various pathologies derived from the diagnostic study, thus proposing to work on oral hygiene education based on the main techniques to decrease susceptibility to oral diseases in the elderly subjects of the study. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using theoretical, statistical, and empirical methods.