Abstract
Oral cleaning plays an important role in the care for prevention of aspiration pneumonia in the frail elderly. But“oral health care” is frequently performed by non-dental professionals, who may have a different understanding of oral cleaning from dental professionals. We clarify non-dental professionals’ concept of oral cleaning in order to give technical guidance for more effective oral cleaning in hospitals and nursing health care facilities for the elderly.
A survey questionnaire was conducted of 264 people, 93 elderly nursing health care facilities and 171 rehabilitation hospital staff, from July 1 through 21, 2008. The differences between the actual time of the oral cleaning and the desired time of cleaning per person were analyzed with a t-test.
The effective number of respondents was 195 (73.9%). Among them, 90 % know the relationship between systemic disease like aspiration pneumonia and oral cleaning. 71% are interested in oral cleaning. Eighty-five percent of respondents performed oral cleaning, and 64% felt their oral cleaning was inadequate. Respondent who have received the training courses for oral cleaning are 36% and 97% wish to receive the oral cleaning instruction. Also, the average of the time gap between the desired oral cleaning and the actual oral cleaning time per person is 2.1±5.2 minutes, showing a significant difference.
From the results above, it is suggested that further guidance is needed both in terms of awareness and of oral cleaning skills for staffs. Reform of oral cleaning practices will take time. In addition to this result, we also show the limit of oral cleaning by staff and suggest that the continued leadership and intervention by dental professionals are essential.
