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Oral self‐care behaviours in older dentate adults
Author(s) -
Payne Barbara J.,
Locker David
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0528.1992.tb00703.x
Subject(s) - interdental consonant , snacking , medicine , oral hygiene , oral health , dentistry , gerontology , obesity
Defining oral self‐care as activities undertaken by individuals to maintain or promote dental health, this paper examines the distribution of oral self‐cure behaviours in a sample of dentate adults, age 50 and over, living in Ontario, Canada ( n = 713). Results are presented separately for two older cohorts, respondents ages 50–64 and those 65 and older, and for females and males. Six oral self‐care behaviours were examined: toothbrushing, flossing, use of an interdental device, extra fluoride use, frequency of between meal snacks and ingestion of cariogenic foods. High males of self‐care occurred only for tooth brushing. Age groups differed significantly for use of interdental devices, consumption of cariogenic foods and snacking between meals while gender differences were found for tooth brushing, flossing and consuming sweet foods. The need to target older adults and especially older males for oral hygiene information and instruction in order to counteract possible misleading beliefs learned before the advent of current Dental hygiene practices is apparent from these data.