Abstract
With the increase in the number of elderly people requiring nursing care, there are more and more opportunities to provide home-visit care. During home visits, patients in various systemic conditions are treated, and oral care is an essential basic procedure that must be performed on all patients. However, even though the term “ oral care ” is now widely used and recognized, the interpretation and content of what it means and how it should be performed differ from person to person. In this paper, we will first examine the origins of the term “ oral care ” and the various definitions currently available, and then we will discuss how oral care should be understood and interpreted. We will then discuss how oral care should be performed, how we should interact with patients, their families, caregivers, and other professionals through oral care, and what we should do to become dental professionals who contribute to improving the quality of life of patients, which society expects of us.
