Recent progress confirms that apathy has a significant impact on those with major NCD and those with mild NCDs. As such, it is an important target for research and intervention.

There is a lack of high quality evidence to support the effectiveness of oral health interventions and implementation strategies for older people with dementia or cognitive impairment. More rigorous, large scale research is needed in this area. Recommendations are provided to improve the overall quality of evaluation in this area. Emphasis must be placed on developing evidence-based, achievable and sustainable oral health strategies if the needs of people with dementia and cognitive impairment are to be met into the future.

The role of nurses may have to be expanded beyond traditional roles to meet the growth and changes in oral health needs in residential facilities. Intensive training of a few lead advocate nurses to assess risk and formulate individualised NSCOCPs provides a method to transfer knowledge to untrained staff and deliver multicomponent preventive interventions soon after entry into residential care where timely visits by dental professionals to examine residents and prescribe preventive interventions are infrequent or unlikely.