Normative and perceived dental treatment need of the middle-aged and the elderly in Guangdong, China. [in Chinese)

Objective To describe the normative dental treatment need of the middle-aged and the elderly in Guangdong province and compare with the subjects' perceived treatment need. Methods The sample comprised of 1573 3544-year-olds and 1515 6574-year-olds recruited from urban and rural areas through multi-stage cluster sampling. Each survey subject underwent an interview by trained interviewers and a clinical examination according to WHO(1997) criteria. Results Almost all of the subjects have normative treatment need. More than half of the subjects in both age groups were assessed to be in need of simple dental treatments only. 63% of the middle-aged and 51% of the elderly subjects had a perceived need for dental treatment, while the treatment items requested were few. Conclusion The prevalence of normative dental treatment need among the middle-aged and the elderly in Guangdong was found to be high but the treatments were mainly simple ones. However, the prevalence of perceived treatment need in this population was low and the discrepancy between these two types of treatment needs was significant.