Self‐assessment of oral health, dental health care and oral health‐related quality of life among Parkinson's disease patients

Abstract

In this study, patients with PD suffered from OH-related symptoms (xerostomia, drooling, and dysphagia) that impaired their OH-related QoL. Participants felt that they received adequate dental health care; however, dental advice regarding management of PD-related OH problems was often lacking.

Hyposalivation and xerostomia among Parkinson's disease patients and its impact on quality of life

“…Additionally, the underreporting of non‐motor symptoms among patients with PD has been reported in a recent series (Chaudhuri et al , ). These findings support our own data that patients with PD rarely report dry mouth symptoms to their dentists and are therefore poorly informed regarding possible treatment options (Barbe et al , ).…”

“…According to the piloting character of our study and the study setting in a dental department, we only collected self‐evaluated MDS‐UPDRS‐II values that could be easily completed in an outpatient setting. Nevertheless, we believe that the MDS‐UPDRS‐II is a good approximation of disease severity in our study setting and has been shown elsewhere to be a good parameter in dental studies (Barbe et al , ). We have not investigated the DMFT (decayed missing filled teeth) index or use of a prosthesis among our study participants, although this information might have had valuable impact on the quality of life.…”

Subjective and objective halitosis among patients with Parkinson's disease

“…It has been reported that patients with PD suffer from an impaired OHrQoL . Although the OHIPG‐14 total score was higher among our patients with PD, no correlation with halitosis besides a weak correlation with the DMS values could be shown.…”

“…In a previous study, we observed a mean difference within matched pairs of 0.46 (SD: 0.51) mL for stimulated whole saliva (SWS) . This corresponds to a (large) standardised effect of 0.9.…”

Efficacy of a newly developed mouth gel for xerostomia relief—A randomized double‐blind trial

“…After application of the new mouth gel for 7 days, almost two‐thirds of patients reported that their feeling of dry mouth had improved and half of patients reported that they felt better overall after using the test gel. This overall impression of feeling better highlights the need for further development and improvement of symptomatic therapies, as it represents the negative effects of dry mouth on quality of life that has been demonstrated in diverse populations with different underlying causes for dry mouth (Ahmad, Bhayat, Zafar, & Al‐Samadani, ; Barbe et al, ; Dirix et al, ). Considering that dentists are the first point of contact to inform their patients about potential symptomatic relief options for dry mouth, but that few dentists are well‐informed regarding the impact of xerostomia on quality of life, further research and education of healthcare providers seems necessary (Barbe et al, ).…”