The edentulous patient: attitudes toward oral health status.

ENTISTRY HAS assumed a leadership position among the health sciences by its early commitment to preventive care. Fluoride applications alone have substantially reduced the economic and human suffering caused by oral disease.' However, the Commitment by the profession has largely overlooked the edentulous patient, concentrating on the young in the effort to protect and preserve the natural dentition. Currently, there are more than 44 million people wearing full or partial dentures who could benefit from the profess ion ' s commitment t o prevent ive therapy . 2 It is erroneously believed that attempts to educate and motivate the complete denture patient are wasted efforts, and that these patients are edentulous because they did not properly maintain their teeth, and any preventive program will be poorly received. It is assumed that edentulous patients have a fatalistic attitude toward their oral condition and that they will not perceive the benefits in routine oral hygiene procedures. As part of a larger study that attempted to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of oral hygiene procedures for the edentulous patient, an instrument was administered that measures the perceptions and attitudes of these people toward their oral condition.