Oral health care needs of dependent older people: responsibilities of nurses and care staff

Abstract

The population of older people as well as the number of dependent older people is steadily increasing. Those unable to live independently at home are being cared for in a range of settings and varying degrees of dependency means that many are unable to attend fully to their needs, one aspect of which is oral care. The fact that the oral and dental health of the UK population is generally improving, makes more emphatic the responsibilities of nurses and care staff in this area. This review of the literature reveals that oral health of older people in continuing care settings is generally inadequate and that nurses' and care staff's knowledge and practice of oral care for older people is variable. Inadequate oral care is identified as multifactorial, with implications for educators, policy makers, practitioners and researchers. The need to address oral care for nurses pre- and post-registration as well as adequate preparation for support workers is highlighted. Development of a robust oral assessment tool, as well as empirical investigation of the effectiveness of oral cleaning agents, equipment and techniques to inform standard setting is indicated, with monitoring of standards being imperative.

Oral Care of Hospitalised Older Patients in the Acute Medical Setting

“…Oral care is dependent on the nurse's knowledge of oral care best practice. Fitzpatrick [20] acknowledges that nurses' knowledge of oral hygiene is variable. Oral hygiene is often thought to be underrecognised by nurses for the fundamental impact it can have on a person's wellbeing and health status [18].…”

“…Research evidence suggests there are subgroups of older people known to be at risk of poor oral care, in particular people with dementia [27], and those that have come from residential care [20, 28–30]. It is often these subgroups of older people that are a majority of the patients on acute medical wards.…”

“…Acute medical wards in hospitals are frequently filled with frail people, and this group of patients have been noted to often have comprised oral health (Andersson 1999 and Öhrn et al 2001 as cited in Paulsson et al [12]). Fitzpatrick [20] noted that older adults due to ageing processes have a loss of soft tissue attachments, which results in loosening of teeth root exposure, and teeth can become more brittle. Due to the ageing process older people have oral care needs that need to be met [26].…”

Evaluación de la higiene bucal en los pacientes de un hospital de media/larga estancia

“…Recien Artículo Original Revista Científica de Enfermería deben poseer conocimientos y habilidades para atender las necesidades de los pacientes hospitalizados, cuando éstos estén incapacitados para realizarla por sí mismos (13). Sin embargo, es frecuente encontrarnos con un índice muy bajo de higiene bucodental en los pacientes hospitalizados en las instituciones de larga estancia (14)(15).…”

Knowledge Discovery in a Community Data Set: Malnutrition among the Elderly

“…The leading causes of malnutrition include several individual factors, such as poor oral health, loss of vision and hearing, dementia, impaired mobility, and pain. Malnutrition is both a cause and consequence of many geriatric diseases that accounts for a significant proportion of national medical spending [9]. Nutritional status has a great influence on the immune system of the human body; the lower immune response induced by malnutrition eventually puts elderly individuals at a high risk of infection, increasing the risk of mortality [10].…”