RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: Investigating oral health's relationship with dependency and cognitive state. BACKGROUND: Oral hygiene is poor in the institutionalised elderly. There are problems regarding the oral care of residents having poor mobility or cognitive impairment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Cross-sectional study involving 135 participants (mean age 85.7, SD 8.8 years) in two categories: nurses doing tooth cleaning and residents doing tooth cleaning. Those cleaned by nurses were categorised as co-operative or unco-operative. The oral hygiene status, presence of caries, retained roots and denture-related stomatitis were recorded. RESULTS: Of the participants, 70% had only natural teeth. The prevalence of caries was 28%. A significant correlation showed that having more teeth gave a poorer Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S) (p = 0.018). The number of retained roots increased with the severity of cognitive impairment (p < 0.05). Significant differences were found between nurses or residents doing the tooth cleaning on the OHI-S (p = 0.05) and percentage of dental plaque (p = 0.003). Unco-operative residents had poorer oral hygiene (p = 0.028), more caries (p = 0.008) and were more often moderate-severe cognitive impaired (p = 0.016). CONCLUSIONS: A high percentage of participants had unacceptable oral hygiene. Residents whose teeth were cleaned by the nurses had poorer oral hygiene. Unco-operative residents had the worst oral hygiene and more caries.