Promoting good dental health in older people: role of the community nurse

Abstract

Good dental health enables a person to eat, speak, and socialise. It contributes to nutrition, general health, and quality of life. The dental health of people living in the UK has improved in the last 40 years, and older people are retaining their natural teeth throughout their life; nontheless, a significant proportion of people over 75 years still rely on partial and full dentures. Dental disease in all age groups is readily prevented by daily oral hygiene and adherence to a healthy diet, avoidance of smoking, and sensible alcohol intake. Some older people may simply need reminding and encouragement to carry out oral hygiene, while more dependent adults may need support and active help to do so. Nursing teams and health professionals play a key role in promoting oral health by supporting oral hygiene and adequate nutrition, preventing discomfort, and detecting dental diseases early. This article gives a brief overview of how nursing teams and health professionals can promote oral health and provides details of resources from which further detailed information may be obtained.

Misperception of Oral Health among Adults in Rural Areas: A Fundamental but Neglected Issue in Primary Healthcare

“…The maintenance of good oral hygiene is an important strategy for the prevention of many chronic diseases. Research has shown that dental disease can be prevented easily in all age groups, through daily oral hygiene, adherence to a healthy diet, and avoidance of smoking [ 16 ]. However, the provision of oral hygiene-based care is discretionary and often omitted in hospital and community settings [ 4 , 15 ].…”

“…According to the literature on the subject, brushing the teeth twice per day, using dental floss before bedtime, adopting a healthy diet with sufficient fruit and vegetables, and receiving regular dental check-ups and scaling, all can benefit oral health and constitute fundamental content for dental health education [ 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Despite the importance of oral health, it is often neglected in primary healthcare and nursing in clinical and community settings [ 6 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Therefore, early detection and reduction of these risk factors would exert an important effect on many chronic diseases that lead to considerable national economic and health burden.…”

“…Oral healthcare is fundamental in nursing, including that which is provided in hospital and community settings [ 15 , 16 , 19 ]. Oral healthcare has also been identified as a core component of recommended practice for reducing ventilator-associated pneumonia, as put forth by the CDC [ 20 ].…”

Factors associated with a positive willingness to practise oral health care in the future amongst oral healthcare and nursing students

“…In countries progressing towards an ageing society, not only oral health professionals but also other healthcare workers, such as nurses, play important roles in providing oral health care to patients in hospitals, frail older adults in long-term care facilities and community-dwelling frail older adults. 13 However, some studies have reported that oral health care has been shown to be a low priority for nurses, 14 and many nursing students and nurses have been found to have a low level of understanding of oral health issues. 15,16 In Japan, the term "oral health care" is used widely by health professionals.…”

Promotion of oral health by community nurses

“…Promotion of optimal oral hygiene can indeed improve and maintain the overall health and wellbeing of an older person (Miegel and Wachtel, 2009). Therefore, ensuring basic oral health care for patients in community nursing care is unquestionably a professional responsibility for nurses as part of a multi-disciplinary approach (Daly and Smith, 2015;Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), 2015).…”