The impact of frailty on the oral care behaviour and dental service use of elderly people
In order to explore how the level of frailty and various frailty factors affect the dental service use and oral self-care behaviour of frail elderly people, 51 frail elderly people were interviewed. Additional information on age, gender, living situation, prosthetic status, self-reported health and oral health, chronic diseases and an index for frailty was collected. A thematic qualitative analysis of the collected data reveals that frail elders maintain long-established oral hygiene routines as long as possible to sustain a sense of self-worth. When burdened by severe health complaints they discontinue visits to the dentist first and oral hygiene routines subsequently. A loss of confidence in the results of dental service use, the trivializing of complaints and a diminishing sense of the importance of oral health play a role in these developments. Frail elderly people also experience psychological and social barriers to oral healthcare and dental service use when they are institutionalized.