Could a national oral health promotion program improve the oral hygiene of persons attending special care establishments in France? Evaluation of a pilot program

Outpatient and inpatient dental care for patients with disabilities in Brazil's public healthcare system: A population-based approach from 2014 to 2023

AIM

The aim of this study was to evaluate outpatient and inpatient dental care for patients with disabilities from 2014 to 2023.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A time series analysis was carried out with data from Brazil's public healthcare system, considering the outpatient productivity of Special Needs Dentistry specialists and hospitalizations (inpatient admissions) of patients with disabilities for dental procedures, both normalized to every 100,000 inhabitants (incidence). The significance level was set at 5%.

RESULTS

In the last 10 years, 22,420,859 procedures were carried out and 89,380 hospitalizations were approved. Trend analysis showed no significant temporal variation in the incidence of both variables. Regarding the procedures, the majority were low-complexity (82.1%, p < .001) and clinical (71.2%, p < .001). Periodontal (19.9%) and restorative (19.5%) procedures were the most frequent. Considering the hospitalizations, almost (R$) 40 million was allocated, and the majority were classified as elective (71.9%, p = .002) and of short duration (less than a day).

CONCLUSION

Dental care for patients with disabilities presented patterns related to the types of procedures, complexity and circumstance, in addition to not showing significant temporal variation over the last 10 years.

The complexity of tooth brushing among older adults with intellectual disabilities: Findings from a nationally representative survey

BACKGROUND

Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) have poor oral-hygiene and oral health. A better understanding of their oral-hygiene behaviours will inform interventions to improve personal and population health.

OBJECTIVE/HYPOTHESIS

To identify the oral hygiene behaviours undertaken by and on behalf of older people with IDD.

METHODS

Cross-sectional survey from the third wave of the Intellectual Disability Supplement to The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (IDS-TILDA) undertaken 2016-2017. Frequency of oral hygiene, level of support, type of brush used and for a subsample, brushing technique are reported. Bivariate analyses adopted Pearson's Chi Square test of independence.

RESULTS

The sample (N = 609) had a mean age of 59.7 years (SD = 8.8); 88.4% (n = 536) reported tooth cleaning at least daily. The majority who had teeth to clean reported using standard toothbrushes (75.9%), with a minority using electric (9.6%) or modified toothbrushes (5.9%). Of the 505 who reported cleaning teeth, 285 (48.5%) did not report any assistance, 127 (25.2%) were totally dependent on another person and 133 (26.3%) reported assisted cleaning, of whom 40.0% (n = 52) were Supervised, reminded or encouraged, 27.7% (n = 36) reported Hand-on-Hand and 23.8% (n = 31) reported Brush-after-Brush techniques. An association was detected between assistance and type of toothbrush used (p < 0.001). None was detected between assistance and frequency-of-brushing (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Older adults with IDD present with a complex mix of supports, toothbrushes and techniques. This highlights the complexity of oral-hygiene behaviour for this population and indicates the need for bespoke individual care plans and complexity in interventions to improve population oral-hygiene.

Effectiveness of an Oral Health Promotion Program for the Elderly in Khiri Mat District, Sukhothai Province: A Randomized Control Trial

Objectives:

Oral disease is one of the most common health problems among the elderly, which impacts the quality of life. Applying the Health Belief Model (HBM) in oral health promotion is expected to improve the effectiveness of prevention and promotion that restricts oral health problems. The aim of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of an oral health promotion program on oral health behavior and oral status among the elderly in Khiri Mat, Thailand.

Materials and Methods:

A prospective randomized control trial was carried out among 162 elderly people for 6 months. They were interviewed to gather oral health behaviors and perception information, followed by an oral health examination. The experimental group received oral health education based on the HBM theory and tooth brushing practice in a small group of 4–5 persons, and then they were remotivated to support behavior change at 1 and 3 months. The control group received traditional oral health activity. All the elderly were followed up at 6 months. Data were analyzed using the t-test, Mann–Whitney test, Chi-square, and logistic regression.

Results:

The elderly in the experimental group had significantly higher oral health perception, lower plaque scores, lower gingival inflammation, and lower clinical attachment loss than those in the control group (P < 0.05).

Conclusion:

This oral health promotion program improved oral health perception, behavior, and oral health status of the elderly.