Oral health referral trigger tools for people living with HIV

Abstract

This study validated and compared two different Oral Health Referral Trigger Tools in the form of brief (3-item and 5-item) questionnaires designed to identify people living with HIV (PLHIV) with symptoms of oral disease requiring a dental referral from other health professionals. It was composed of a self-completed questionnaire and oral screen by a dentist of a convenience sample selected from PLHIV attending two outpatient clinics for routine nondental care for HIV infection. The dental exam was completed by a single dentist at a third location. The one hundred participants were HIV positive, predominantly male and of Caucasian origin with a mean age of 45.6 years. Both referral tools were found to be valid and had adequate sensitivity to identify HIV positive subjects at risk of oral disease and facilitate appropriate referral by nondental health professionals to dental health service. When both tools were compared the 3-item tool proved to be a more valid and sensitive indicator which could be easily applied by nondental staff to facilitate a dental referral.

Oral health status of people living with HIV/AIDS attending a specialized service in Brazil

“…In addition, studies show that patients on HAART have a lower occurrence of carious surfaces than those that are not. This is because patients that tend to adhere to treatment are more likely to seek health care and therefore, more often visit the dentist and the dental treatment is performed completely …”

“…This is because patients that tend to adhere to treatment are more likely to seek health care and therefore, more often visit the dentist and the dental treatment is performed completely. [27][28][29] Historically, in Brazil, the adult population has been intended for emergency dental services, mostly caused by pain, which usually results in missing teeth.…”

Impact of xerostomia on oral health and quality of life among adults infected with HIV‐1

“…This was a subanalysis of a study on Validation of Oral Health Referral Trigger Tools (VOHRTT) for nondental clinicians managing PLHIV. Preliminary findings of VOHRTT study have been previously reported 9 …”

Prevalence of dental symptoms and access to dental care in an American HIV outpatient clinic

“…A convenience sample of HIV-positive individuals (n = 62) attending the University of California, Los Angeles outpatient HIV Clinical AIDS Research and Education (CARE) clinic from February 01 to May 31, 2017 completed a short questionnaire, developed using validated symptom queries shown to correlate with dentist-assessed periodontal disease (Carey, Ackerie, Houtzager, Purnomo, & Jeganathan, 2014).…”