The prevalence of candida albicans in institutionalized geriatric denture wearers
The aim of this prospective study is to record the presence of Candida albicans yeast in geriatric population, and to compare the results between denture wearers and non-wearers, in order to evaluate the role of dentures as factor influencing the Candidal growth. We performed oral examination on 217 institutionalized elderly people living in hospice "Sv. Josip" in Zagreb, recorded the data regarding oral health and collected detailed information on denture wearing status. Furthermore, we performed oral smears for Candidal cultures ; cultivated on Sabouraud's dextrose agar ("Emmon's") on 37 C for 48 hrs and counted the Candidal colonies. Collected data were stored in the database created for this purpose in "Microsoft Access 2ooo". The number of Candidal colonies from denture wearers and non-wearers were compared (Man-Whitney U test, p