The effect of dry mouth improvement by oral exercise program in elderly people

The Effects of Orofacial Myofunctional Training on the Changes of Lip and Tongue Strength in Elderly People

“…Perception of xerostomia was 55%, meaning more than half of the study population experienced discomfort due to xerostomia. The number of elderly patients visiting dentists is expected to increase due to the increased prevalence of dry oral mucosa, loss of elasticity, pain, hypogeusia, periodontal disease, oral candidiasis, and intraoral infection, such as sialadenitis 20) . Therefore, preventive measures are needed to resolve oral health issuesincluding xerostomia in elderly people.…”

“…For the oral muscle training, oral function improvement exercises from Japan and oral calisthenics from Korea were referenced 17,18,20,21) , and muscle function strengthening training was conducted after upgrading some methods, as shown in Fig. 1.…”

“…However, most of the studies relate to the field of occupational therapy and focus primarily on the effects of breathing and oral exercise training on patients with diseases such as cerebral palsy or stroke 19) . In the field of dental hygiene, studies have been conducted on improving saliva secretion, xerostomia, and halitosis using oral calisthenics 20) . However, because the…”

The Actual Status of Elderly Orofacial-Function Improvement Program in Seoul and Gyenggi-Area

“…This oral exercise regimen 10 sets of oral exercises that target to enhance oral functions: warm-up (deep breathing, neck and shoulder stretching), mouth opening and tongue stretching (strengthen masseter, temporalis, and tongue muscles), cheek and neck stretching (strengthen masseter, temporal, buccinator, platysma, and orbicular oris muscles), tongue exercise (increase tongue muscle strength and stimulate salivary glands), masticatory exercise (strengthen muscles of mastication), inflating cheeks with air (strengthen orbicularis oris), swallowing exercise (enhance swallowing motion), articulation exercise (linguolabial articulation exercise, involving tongue, lip, and soft palate), cool-down (breathing). The goals of oral exercise are to prevent oral dysfunctions in healthy older adults and to facilitate functional recovery and maintenance in older adults with oral dysfunction by continuously moving and training various oral tissues, and its effectiveness has been documented in several studies [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] . After participating in an oral exercise program, older adults showed better perceived mouth dryness by 20.91 points 8) , an increase of unstimulated salivary flow rate by 0.029to 0.1 ml/min [8][9][10][11][12] , maximum mouth opening by 0.2 to 0.4 cm 9,11,12) , mouth inflating by 22.6% 13) , and articulation by 0.04 to 8.36 times 9,[11][12][13][14] , showing that all relevant oral functions were significantly enhanced.…”

“…The goals of oral exercise are to prevent oral dysfunctions in healthy older adults and to facilitate functional recovery and maintenance in older adults with oral dysfunction by continuously moving and training various oral tissues, and its effectiveness has been documented in several studies [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] . After participating in an oral exercise program, older adults showed better perceived mouth dryness by 20.91 points 8) , an increase of unstimulated salivary flow rate by 0.029to 0.1 ml/min [8][9][10][11][12] , maximum mouth opening by 0.2 to 0.4 cm 9,11,12) , mouth inflating by 22.6% 13) , and articulation by 0.04 to 8.36 times 9,[11][12][13][14] , showing that all relevant oral functions were significantly enhanced. Moreover, anticipated popularity and satisfaction regarding oral exercise programs were high, so launching them as national health projects would help effectively promote elderly health 9) .…”