Patients knowledge about care of removable dentures

Relevance of the problem and aim of the work: in older age, people are more likely to experience various health disorders, one of which is loss of teeth. throughout the world, as well as in lithuania, one of the most popular ways of recreating the integrity of damage dental arch, remain removable dentures. patients' well-being, quality of life and general oral health of the removable dentures are highly dependent on prosthetic care. the aim of the study is to evaluate the knowledge of patients and their hygiene habits in the care of portable removable dentures. material and methods: 103 patients were surveyed in šiauliai city and kaunas city medical institutions. the respondents responded to 30 questionnaire questions about prosthetic care and wear habits. statistical data analysis was performed using spss 22 using descriptive statistics, chisquare (χ2), mann-whitney and kruskal-wallis criteria. results: 63 women and 40 men participated in the study. most of the respondents were over 65 years of age (64.1%) receiving lower than average income (85.4%). most of the respondents clean the dentures with a brush 1-2 times a day, but use the same dental brush to clean the teeth. it was found that patients do not disinfect dentures often enough, and even one third of respondents (31.3%) do not disinfect at all. However, younger patients (up to 65 years of age) had statistically significantly better dental care habits. even 69.9% of patients visit the dentist only when they have complaints. conclusions: most removable dentures using people are over the age of 65 years. despite the fact that the level of theoretical knowledge of prosthetic care and wearing habits of most patients is sufficient, in practice the care of dentures is insufficient. also, patients rarely visit a dentist for preventive examination