ORAL AND DENTAL STATUS OF BULGARIAN PATIENTS – A 5-YEAR STUDY

Introduction: Oral diseases are major health problem for society. Demographic, health, personal and clinical factors influence the DMFT index of patients. There is a connection between oral hygiene habits, smoking, amount of food, frequency of intake and the spread of oral diseases. The lack of attention for oral care leads to the appearance of oral lesions. Purpose: The main aim of this study is to determine the factors for oral pathology and to find if there is a correlation between oral status of the patients, their dental habits and attitude to oral health. Participants and methods: Subject of this social study are 603 patients, 380 women (63%) and 223 (37%) men, range age 18 – 82 years. All of them are from North-Eastern Bulgarian regions – Varna, Dobrich, Shumen and Targovishte. Every patient has been asked to answer 20 questions and has undergone a clinical examination. DMFT index was recorded. Results: We found oral mucosal lesions as leukoplakia, lichen planus, Candidal infections, fissured tongue, lingual varicosities and mucocele in 11.44% of patients. Dental caries was found to be prevalent in almost all examined patients. DMFT index varied from 5.01±3.6 to 16.45±4.9 in different age groups. Data about tooth brushing and using of additional methods for controlling the biofilm was also presented. The results showed that younger patients have better oral and dental health and pay more attention on maintaining their oral hygiene. Conclusions: The oral and dental status of the Bulgarian patients can be assessed as average damaged with high treatment needs. To make it better a lot of health promotional and dental preventive activities are needed especially in the field of improving hygiene habits, use of additional funds for hygiene and more frequent dental visits of the whole population