IADR Abstract Archives
Dental Outreach in Nursing Homes: a 10-Year Oral Health Comparison.
Objectives: Nursing home residents often experience poor oral health and significant treatment backlog. Gerodent is a comprehensive, long-term (12 years) oral healthcare programme in Flanders, Belgium, including biannual professional care provided through a mobile dental clinic. Previous research (data-collection 2010-2012) revealed poor oral health and high treatment needs among residents attending the mobile clinic. This study aims to compare the oral health of care home residents attending the mobile clinic 10 years later.
Methods: Following informed consent, data of first-time mobile clinic patients were collected (2021-2023). Generalized estimating equations were used to compare oral health outcomes between the two separate samples (S1: 2010-2012, n=1226; S2: 2021-2023, n=775). Results were adjusted for age, sex, increased reimbursement for healthcare costs (IRHC), number of medications and care-dependency.
Results: While there were no differences in age, care-dependency and number of medications, S2 contained 18% fewer women and 39% fewer patients with IRHC than S1. There were considerably lower edentulousness rates in S2 (S1:42% versus S2:28%; OR=1.82; 95%CI:1.33-2.49). Among dentate residents, S2 had higher mean number of teeth (S1 12.1 versus S2 13.3; RR=1.10; 95%CI: 1.03-1.17) and lower prevalence of caries and root remnants (RRs) (S1:70% versus S2:53%; RR=0.55; 95%CI: 0.44-0.69]). However, the proportion of residents with caries and RRs was similar between the total samples. In the dentate sample, 77% of S1 and 54% of S2 required clinical treatment extractions and restorations) for natural teeth OR=0.32; 95%CI: 0.23-0.42).
Conclusions: In the years 2021-2023, the mobile clinic saw a higher proportion of dentate care home residents with more natural teeth per person, exhibiting lower levels of pathology and treatment needs compared to 2010-2012. Further analysis will include inverse probability weighting to account for potential selection bias due to variable informed consent process between the two samples, providing an initial indication for future care provision in this patient-population.
Methods: Following informed consent, data of first-time mobile clinic patients were collected (2021-2023). Generalized estimating equations were used to compare oral health outcomes between the two separate samples (S1: 2010-2012, n=1226; S2: 2021-2023, n=775). Results were adjusted for age, sex, increased reimbursement for healthcare costs (IRHC), number of medications and care-dependency.
Results: While there were no differences in age, care-dependency and number of medications, S2 contained 18% fewer women and 39% fewer patients with IRHC than S1. There were considerably lower edentulousness rates in S2 (S1:42% versus S2:28%; OR=1.82; 95%CI:1.33-2.49). Among dentate residents, S2 had higher mean number of teeth (S1 12.1 versus S2 13.3; RR=1.10; 95%CI: 1.03-1.17) and lower prevalence of caries and root remnants (RRs) (S1:70% versus S2:53%; RR=0.55; 95%CI: 0.44-0.69]). However, the proportion of residents with caries and RRs was similar between the total samples. In the dentate sample, 77% of S1 and 54% of S2 required clinical treatment extractions and restorations) for natural teeth OR=0.32; 95%CI: 0.23-0.42).
Conclusions: In the years 2021-2023, the mobile clinic saw a higher proportion of dentate care home residents with more natural teeth per person, exhibiting lower levels of pathology and treatment needs compared to 2010-2012. Further analysis will include inverse probability weighting to account for potential selection bias due to variable informed consent process between the two samples, providing an initial indication for future care provision in this patient-population.