2021 Volume 25 Issue 2 Pages 120-128
Purpose: Oral care is essential to prevent aspiration pneumonia. However, oral care is difficult in many facilities for the elderly because many elderly people cannot gargle or refuse oral care. Furthermore, it is difficult to secure time for oral care, and so an efficient care method is desired. Therefore, we verified whether aroma candy, which is effective in removing tongue coating, would be an efficient and effective oral care at our facility.
Method: The subjects were 92 residents of special elderly nursing homes who were randomly divided into two groups: an intervention group (n＝46) and a non-intervention group (n＝46). The intervention group ingested aroma candy three times a day for 7 days, usually after meals. After the intervention, Ueda's tongue coating index (TCI) and the number of Candida were compared with those before ingestion. Candida were classified into five levels according to the number of colonies using a Candida detector. The non-intervention group continued normal care and was reassessed after 1 week. As followup, the same two items were examined 1 month after the start of aroma candy ingestion and compared with those immediately after intervention.
Results: The intervention group indicated a tendency of decreased TCI compared to the non-intervention group, but no significant change was observed in the number of Candida. In the pre-post comparison of the intervention group, TCI decreased significantly after the intervention. However, TCI increased significantly after 1 month. Comparing by resident conditions in the intervention group, Candida decreased significantly in the dentureless group, the side dish food form code 3 (Japanese Dysphagia Diet 2013) or less group, and the low body mass index group (＜20 kg/m2). All groups tended to maintain low values until 1 month later.
Conclusion: Aroma candy was considered to have a certain effect under conditions such as not using dentures or eating a diet that does not leave food residue. Aroma candy is expected to improve the oral health of the elderly as an efficient means of oral care without causing pain to the user, and to maintain and improve the QOL.
