The Relationship between Tooth Loss and Gingival Status with Oral Hygiene in Postmenopausal Women

Poor oral hygiene can lead to further periodontal damage, especially in the postmenopausal pre-elderly who are deficient in estrogen. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between socio-demographic factors, tooth loss and gingival status on oral hygiene in postmenopausal women aged 45 until 59 years old. This study was a cross-sectional study of postmenopausal women aged 45 until 59 years old with periodontitis in Jakarta Indonesia Information about age, education level and duration of menopause were obtained through interviews and history taking. Clinical examination was performed to check the oral hygiene index, the number of tooth loss and gingival status, namely the plaque index, papillary bleeding index. The results of this study showed that subjects who lost their teeth ≥4 (57.10%) had poor oral hygiene compared to <4 (42.90%) however, the Spearman correlation test showed that there was no significant relationship between the number of tooth losses (p = 0.907) with oral hygiene index. Pearson correlation test showed that there was a significant relationship between gingival status as measured by plaque index and papillary bleeding index (p=0.001) with the oral hygiene index. The conclusion of this study, postmenopausal women are prone to experience problems in the oral cavity, especially periodontal tissue. Socio-demographic factors such as age, level of education and also the length of menopause were not significantly associated with oral hygiene; however, there was a significant relationship between gingival status and oral hygiene in postmenopausal women aged 45 until 59 years old