Oral health and dental care in aged care facilities in New South Wales, Australia. Part 3 concordance between residents’ perceptions and a professional dental examination

Abstract

Increased awareness about oral health across leadership, caregivers and residents with appropriate dental health education and dedicated space within facilities would provide a much needed improvement for addressing oral health issues of the ACF residents. This might be the right time to plan for the future challenges that will need to be met by the NSW care system.

Promoting oral health care among people living in residential aged care facilities: Perceptions of care staff

“…As part of this model of care, a train the trainer programme which focused on training registered nurses was rolled out across the country to 89% of Australian residential aged care service providers, resulting in 4885 trained nurses . Yet, research has indicated that even after the implementation of this programme, oral health care in RACFs remains inadequate, with studies reporting over half of dentate aged care residents in NSW are not having their teeth cleaned at all, and only 15.7% of residents have oral hygiene which is considered “good.”…”

“…14 Yet, research has indicated that even after the implementation of this programme, oral health care in RACFs remains inadequate, with studies reporting over half of dentate aged care residents in NSW are not having their teeth cleaned at all, and only 15.7% of residents have oral hygiene which is considered "good." 15 The high turnover rate of registered nurses in RACFs raises the potential need for the training of other aged care staff members in oral health. 16 Furthermore, within many RACFs, the responsibility for the delivery of oral hygiene and day-to-day maintenance of oral health lies with RACF care staff; non-registered nurses who have usually completed vocational training in nursing or aged care.…”

Oral health in residential aged care: Perceptions of nurses and management staff

“…A potential contributor to this disconnect is that management staff estimated a lower prevalence of oral health problems than the nursing staff, indicating that those who should be promoting oral health care may be underestimating the oral care needs of residents. Other studies in Australia have also found inaccuracies in managers’ reports of the oral health status of their residents (Webb et al, ). This emphasize the need to ensure management staff are kept aware of the oral health status of residents in the RACFs.…”

“…Nursing staff receive oral health education and training as they are often the primary oral care providers in residential aged care (Lewis, Edwards, Whiting, & Donnelly, ). However, evidence suggests that oral care provision in Australian residential aged care is still insufficient (Webb, Whittle, & Schwarz, ). Researchers have proposed that simple interventions involving the provision of financial resources and training are not sufficient to change oral care provision in residential aged care facilities (RACFs).…”

“…Despite this, recent evidence suggests that oral health care in RACFs still remains inadequate. Less than half (48%) of residents in NSW RACFs had a dental assessment on admission and 74.2% of facilities did not have regular visits by dentists (Webb et al, 2016). Further, there are suggestions that the 'Better Oral Health in Residential Care training' may not be working due to time constraints, staffing issues and workload among nurses in RACF (Hoang, Barnett, Maine, & Crocombe, 2018).…”