The influence of oral health status on speech intelligibility, articulation and quality of life of older community-dwelling people.

Objective: To investigate the impact of the oral health status on speech intelligibility, articulation and quality of life of older community-dwelling people.

Background: To our knowledge, there have been no studies on this topic in patients aged 75 years or older.

Material And Methods: Thirty outpatients of a university dental clinic (median [IQR] age of 77.00 [75-82] years) participated. The OHIP-14, a dental examination, a speech intelligibility study and an articulation examination were conducted.

Results: Distortions of rhotacisms and sigmatisms were most common, followed by distortions of labiodentals and apicoalveolars. Seven participants (23%) required dental treatment. Distortions of rhotacisms were lowest in participants with loss of teeth in the posterior part of the maxilla and equal in participants with edentulous maxilla and loss of teeth in the anterior part of the maxilla (P = 0.014). Labiodental distortions were lowest in participants with loss of teeth in the posterior part of the maxilla, but were higher in participants with loss of teeth in the anterior part of the maxilla and highest in participants with an edentulous maxilla (P = 0.035). People with normal mouth opening had lower percentage of labiodental distortions than people with a reduced mouth opening (P = 0.05). The proportion of participants with inadequate denture hygiene and distortions of bilabials was 71.4% compared to 10.5% for participants with adequate denture hygiene (P = 0.005).

Conclusion: Dentists must consider the impact of a denture on speech, but also should be aware of other oral health factors that influence the speech and quality of life of elders.