Oral health in institutionalised elderly people in Oslo, Norway and its relationship with dependence and cognitive impairment Objective: Investigating oral health's relationship with dependency and cognitive state. Background: Oral hygiene is poor in the institutionalised elderly. There are problems regarding the oral care of residents having poor mobility or cognitive impairment. Material and methods: Cross-sectional study involving 135 participants (mean age 85.7, SD 8.8 years) in two categories: nurses doing tooth cleaning and residents doing tooth cleaning. Those cleaned by nurses were categorised as co-operative or unco-operative. The oral hygiene status, presence of caries, retained roots and denture-related stomatitis were recorded. Results: Of the participants, 70% had only natural teeth. The prevalence of caries was 28%. A significant correlation showed that having more teeth gave a poorer Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S) (p = 0.018). The number of retained roots increased with the severity of cognitive impairment (p < 0.05). Significant differences were found between nurses or residents doing the tooth cleaning on the OHI-S (p = 0.05) and percentage of dental plaque (p = 0.003). Unco-operative residents had poorer oral hygiene (p = 0.028), more caries (p = 0.008) and were more often moderate-severe cognitive impaired (p = 0.016). Conclusions: A high percentage of participants had unacceptable oral hygiene. Residents whose teeth were cleaned by the nurses had poorer oral hygiene. Unco-operative residents had the worst oral hygiene and more caries.

Association between oral health, cognitive impairment and oral health-related quality of life Objective: Investigating oral health-related quality of life's (OH-QoL) relationship with cognitive state. Background: Oral health affects OH-QoL and is poor in institutionalised and cognitively impaired people. Material and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving 215 institutionalised elderly (82.9 mean age), who were interviewed, examined and cognitively screened using the Pfeiffer test. Results: Mean GOHAI score was 53.1; only 43.7% of the participants reported having a good OH-QoL. Needing help with dressing or washing (OR 2.14; p = 0.004), having one to nine teeth (OR 4.65; p ‡ 0.001), eight or less occluding pairs (OR 2.74; p = 0.002), one to three caries (OR 1.85; p = 0.005) and being cognitive impaired (OR 0.54; p = 0.034) were significantly associated with altered OH-QoL in bivariate analysis. Being edentulous (OR 3.18; p = 0.0046), having 1-9 teeth (OR 2.62; p = 0.056) and presenting mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (OR 0.32; p = 0.016) appeared as predictive variables in logistic regression for having an altered OH-QoL. Conclusions: Participants having MCI had significantly better GOHAI score than cognitively normal residents. Performing cognitive screening parallel to applying any OH-QoL instrument would make the results more reliable and would benefit cognitively impaired people.

The aim of this study was to compare the clinical performance of root caries restorations after a six-month period using two methods, a conventional technique with rotary instruments and an atraumatic restorative technique (ART), in an institutionalized elderly population in the city of Bogotá, Colombia. Root caries represents a multifactorial, progressive, chronic lesion with softened, irregular and darkened tissue involving the radicular surface; it is highly prevalent in the elderly, especially in those who are physically or cognitively impaired. A quasi-experimental, double-blind, longitudinal study was carried out after cluster randomization of the sample. Two different experienced dentists, previously trained, performed the restorations using each technique. After six months, two new investigators performed a blind evaluation of the condition of the restorations. The results showed a significantly higher rate of success (92.9%) using the conventional technique (p < 0.03). However, we concluded that ART may have been the preferred technique in the study population because 81% of those restorations survived or were successful during the observation period.

Endodontic retreatment had the highest risk association for VRF after 1-8 years of follow up. Indirect and individual restorations were not significantly associated with VRF.

Both the tissue conditioner and AHRM are effective for the management of DS, but AHRM requires less time for recovery and as a result fewer appointments are required for the patient.