[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.