Oral health status and need for oral care of care-dependent indwelling elderly : from admission to death

A. R. Hoeksema, Lilian L. Peters, G. M. Raghoebar, H. J. A. Meijer, A. Vissink, A. Visser

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Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this study is to assess oral health and oral status of elderly patients newly admitted to a nursing home from admission until death. Materials and methods: Oral health, oral status, need for dental care, cooperation with dental treatment, and given dental care were assessed by two geriatric dentists in all new long-stay patients (n = 725) admitted to a nursing home between January 2009 and December 2013. All patients were followed from admission until death or until they left the nursing home. Results: At admission, dementia patients were significantly older than somatic patients; median [IQR] ages were, respectively, 85 [79–89] and 81 [76–87] (p = 0.001). In addition, edentulous patients were significantly older than patients with remaining teeth, 83 [79–89] versus 80 [74–86] (p = 0.001) years. Thirty percent of the admitted patients died within 12 months after admission. A small minority (20%) of the patients had their own teeth. In this group, poor oral hygiene (72%), caries (70%), and broken teeth (62%) were frequently observed. Edentulous patients were significantly more cooperative with treatment than patients with remaining teeth (64 versus 27%). Finally, significantly less professional dental care was given to edentulous patients when compared to patients with remaining teeth (median 90 [IQR 60–180] versus 165 [75–375] min). Conclusion: When compared to edentulous elderly patients, patients with remaining teeth were younger at admittance, were more often non-cooperative, and had a poorer oral health and higher need for dental care. Clinical relevance: It is important that health care workers ensure adequate oral health and dental care to frail elderly, especially for elderly with remaining teeth.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2189-2196
Number of pages8
JournalClinical Oral Investigations
Volume21
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

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The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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