Evaluation of an oral moisture-checking device for screening dry mouth

Abstract

Objective: This multicenter clinical study was to assess the clinical usability of an oral moisturechecking device in detecting the dry mouth patients and evaluating the optimal measurement site. Materials and Methods: The study group comprised 250 patients with dry mouth and 241 healthy volunteer subjects at 13 medical centers. This device was used to measure the moisture degrees of the lingual mucosa and the buccal mucosa. Subjective oral dryness, objective oral dryness, and saliva flow rates were also compared between the two groups. For statistical analysis, receiver-operating characteristic analysis was performed to calculate the area under the curve (AUC). Results: The moisture degree of the lingual mucosa was significantly lower in the dry mouth group (27.2 ± 4.9) than that in the healthy group (29.5 ± 3.1, AUC = 0.653). When a lingual mucosa moisture degree of 31.0 or higher was defined as normal, less than 27.0 as dry mouth, and 27.0 to less than 31.0 as borderline zone of dry mouth, both the sensitivity and the specificity for the diagnosis of dry mouth were close to 80%. Conclusion: These results suggest that the oral moisture-checking device is a usable screening device for dry mouth.

Assessment of potential clinical cascade between oral hypofunction and physical frailty: Covariance structure analysis in a cross‐sectional study

“…In this study, the oral moisture checker was applied to measure the moisture of the submucosal layer at the central tongue dorsum linguae, 10 mm backward from the apex linguae. The oral moisture checker has been validated; Fukushima et al reported that 241 participants with dry mouth showed 27.2 ± 4.9, while 250 participants without dry mouth showed 29.5 ± 3.1. The cut‐off value is 27.0, that is a measured value <27.0 is evaluated as OD .…”

Oral hypofunction in the older population: Position paper of the Japanese Society of Gerodontology in 2016

“…When evaluating these conditions, an oral moisture checker is suitable for quantitatively assessing the amount of moisture at the measuring site. The device has demonstrated that the amount of moisture in intraoral soft tissue is correlated with the amount of salivary secretion and has shown good results pertaining to sensitivity and specificity in screening for individuals with decreased salivary secretion …”

Time‐dependent effects of tongue cleaning with mouthwash or mouth moisturising gel on the number of microbes on the tongue surface of elders with care needs

“…The value strongly correlates positively with the actual gravimetric moisture percentage, with a correlation coefficient of 0.99, and is a relative measure of water content, rather than the actual moisture percentage. To perform measurements, a sensor of this device was brought into vertical contact with the surface of the tongue 10 mm from the tip of the tongue . Measurement was performed three times, and the median value was used.…”