Management of oral health care requires a high quality team-care system consisting of multidisciplinary medical professionals and facility staff, with a PDCA cycle care plan based on the proper assessment of oral hygiene and function and risk management. In this study, we verified the efficacy of the management of oral health care by dental hygienists using a rapid oral bacteria detection system at an institution for dependent elderly persons.
Methods:
A total of 60 subjects, living at an institution for dependent elderly persons in Yamanashi Prefecture, participated in this study (mean age: 85.6 years, 12 men and 48 women).
The study was performed three times in series: in July, 2007 (1st intervention), in November, 2007 (2nd intervention: monitoring), and in March, 2008 (last intervention). Dental hygienists prepared an interventional oral care plan for the subjects, based on the risk assessment of each subject's oral region, and conducted oral care intervention in cooperation with the facility staff. We used a rapid oral bacteria detection system, which was newly developed, for evaluation of oral hygiene.
Results:
In 48 subjects in whom all three assessments could be made, the number of oral bacteria at the final intervention had significantly decreased (p<0.05) compared to that at the first intervention. For 13 of 34 subjects who were at high risk at the first intervention, the care plan was reconsidered at the second intervention for monitoring. As a consequence, it was observed that the number of oral bacteria had decreased at the last intervention.
Conclusion:
This study suggested that the rapid oral bacteria detection system is effective for management of oral health care, providing a clear indication of improvement of oral hygiene.
This study was partly supported by a Grant-in-Aid from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (H19-choju-011) in 2007.