Taste dissatisfaction correlated factors in elderly patients with complete dentures

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate taste sensation in elderly patients with complete dentures and to assign the relationship among subjective dissatisfaction with taste ability and factors such as age, gender and oral status. Methods and materials: The study comprised of 110 elderly patients with complete dentures, 61 males and 49 females, ranging in age from 52 to 80 who attended two dental offices in Shtip, Macedonia. A self-administered structured questionnaire was given to the participants. The questionnaire included self-assessed items on general health, dry mouth, chewing and taste satisfaction. Respondents underwent investigation of dental status and gustatory testing using a taste mixture (sucrose and tartaric acid). Results: Chi-squared tests showed that the factors associated with dissatisfaction with taste ability were female gender, older age, educational level, burning mouth, oral dryness, accumulation of bacterial plaque on the tongue, wearing dentures covering the entire hard palate and dentures worn overnight. Smoking, presence of medical conditions and use of medications were not found to be significantly correlated with taste discrimination (p>0.05). Conclusions: We found a significant association between subjective taste dissatisfaction and certain oral factors like bacterial plaque on the tongue, burning mouth, oral dryness, wearing dentures overnight and lower educational levels were significantly related to dissatisfaction with taste ability in this study. Taste discrimination levels were significantly impaired after maintaining tongue care and removal of the dentures overnight, hence, when patients complain about diminished taste, dentists must assess oral status as well as taste sensation. Keywords: Taste dissatisfaction, Removable complete dentures, burning mouth, elderl