2016 Volume 31 Issue 1 Pages 28-38
We analyzed the time spent by nursing staff and dental hygienists on mouth cleaning at a special nursing home and compared the cleaning effects.
Five nursing staff working at A facility in Tokyo（4 professional caregivers and 1 nurse）and 6 dental hygienists were asked to provide mouth cleaning to 18 residents（aged 68-101）. The nursing care levels of the residents were either 4 or 5. We asked the cleaning practitioners to answer a questionnaire concerning mouth cleaning. Further, we recorded mouth cleaning sessions to analyze the time spent on the cleaning process. For the resident participants, we examined their oral condition to evaluate the oral cleanness before and after cleaning with the ammonia level, using a multi-item saliva test system（Lion, AL-55）. t-test was used for statistical analysis（significance level at 5%）. For the correlation analysis, we used Pearsonʼs simple correlation coefficient.
In the questionnaire, all respondents answered that the purpose of mouth cleaning is to prevent aspiration pneumonia. The self-assessed time spent on mouth cleaning was longer among dental hygienists, and caregivers self-rated their evaluation score lower. Actual measurement of cleaning time showed that nursing staff spent 1 minute 33 seconds to 3 minutes 59 seconds, while dental hygienists spent 3 minutes 57 seconds to 15 minutes 52 seconds. Also, all dental hygienists conducted intraoral observation. The level of ammonia after a single cleaning session by all practitioners decreased significantly, and there were no differences based on the practitionersʼ professions.
Dental hygienists spent longer on mouth cleaning than other professionals. Mouth cleaning by different professions were equally effective, and no differences were observed among different professionals.
