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영어

The purpose of this study was to examine the state of prosthodontic treatment among some adults and their satisfaction level with prostheses in an attempt to raise awareness of the importance of dental prosthesis management education among dental personnels. The subjects in this study were the adults who were selected from Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. They were aged between 19 and less than 65 and used dental prostheses. After a survey was conducted from March to June, 2011, the collected data were analyzed by the statistical package SPSS 11.5. The findings of the study were as follows:
1. Concerning the general characteristics of the subjects, the rate of the men and the women respectively stood at 34.5 percent and 65.2 percent. The unmarried and married people respectively accounted for 34.8 percent and 65.2 percent. The 18~39 age group accounted for 39.7 percent, and those aged between 40 and less than 65 represented 60.3 percent. The largest group that accounted for 59 percent were high-school graduates, and 41.2 percent earned a monthly income of 0.99 million won or less.
2. As to their characteristics related to prosthodontic treatment, the greatest group (31%) replied that they started to wear dental prostheses in their teens, followed by in their 30s (23%), in their 20s (20.6%), in their 40s (15.4%), in their 50s (7.9%) and in their 60s (2.6%). The biggest group (41.9%) hoped to be insured against prosthodontic treatment in their 40s to 60s.
3. The largest group decided to receive prosthodontic treatment due to their waning oral function (57.5%), and the second biggest group did that for aesthetic reasons (22.3%). The greatest group didn't wear a dental prosthesis for economic reasons (43.8%), and the second largest group didn't because of time constraints (23.7%). When they decided to receive prosthodontic treatment, 48 percent did that through the advice of dentists, and 40.9 percent did that on their own.
4. The type of dental prosthesis that they had most was crown (62.2%), followed by porcelain crown (27.7%), crown & bridge (26.2%), partial denture (9.4%) and implant (8.6%).
5. As for satisfaction with existing dental prostheses by gender, the men were a little more satisfied than the women with the aesthetic characteristics of the dental prostheses including form (3.63), size (3.52) and color (3.48). The women were slightly more satisfied than the men in that dental prostheses prevented them from having something between their teeth or prevented something from sticking to their teeth (t=2.212, 3.31, p<0.05). In terms of dental service, the men felt more pain and anxiety (t=2.997, 3.21, p<0.01) than the women during treatment.
6. Regarding satisfaction level with existing dental prostheses by marital status, the unmarried respondents were more satisfied than the married ones with mastication since dental prostheses made it easier to chew food well (t=2.031, 3.80, p<0.05), since they felt no pain in mastication (t=1.816, 3.81, p<0.05), since dental prostheses prevented them from having something between their teeth or prevented something to stick to their teeth (t=3.807, 3.62, p<0.001), and since they didn't feel like there's something strange in their mouth (t=2.418, 3.89, p<0.05). The unmarried respondents were better satisfied than the married ones with their pronunciation as well (t=2.493, 3.42, p<0.05).
7. In regard to satisfaction level with existing dental prostheses by age, those aged between 18 and 39 were more satisfied with mastication since dental prostheses prevented them from having something between their teeth or preventing something to stick to their teeth (t=2.093, 3.37, p<0.05), and since they didn't feel like there's something strange in their mouth (t=2.839, 3.53, p<0.01). Also, this age group was more satisfied with their pronunciation (t=2.334, 3.87, p<0.05).