Overview of dentures' demand to support the improvement of life quality of the elderly at high-level life expectancy in Indonesia

Aims: The missing teeth should ideally be replaced to anticipate some serious consequences. The most obvious effect of that is esthetics, but something like migration and rotation of teeth, chewing inefficiencies, temporomandibular joint disorders, and speech disorders can also affect function and health. Based on preliminary research, almost all elders who live in nursing homes in Surabaya lose their teeth, partially or completely, and they leave without replacing them with dentures for several reasons. This research intended to study the demands of patients for dentures in the elderly group so that future trends in health and management strategies can be improved. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 80 elderly individuals with multistage random sampling. The design was a descriptive analytical study. The instrument of this study was a validated questionnaire about the demand of dentures. Data analysis method used in this study was descriptive method, and data calculation was presented in percentage form by using software SPSS 16.0. Results: Most of the participants (45 people) presented low level of demand toward dentures (56.2%), with the rest of 35 people having high demand on dentures (43.8%). Conclusions: The demand for low dentures can result in poor oral health, so it is highly recommended that public health programs cover the oral health population, especially the elderly, so that future trends in health and management strategies can be improved.