Effects of Functional Oral Health Care for Lingual Functions in Elderly People Requiring Long-term Care

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify the efficacy of functional oral care for improving the lingual function of elderly people who require long term care in nursing homes. The subjects were 98 elderly resi-dents of 9 nursing homes in the Kanto and Shikoku areas of Japan. They were all ranked more than 10-points on the MMSE. They were randomly divided into 2 groups at each nursing home. One group (w/care) of 49 subjects (mean age: 80.8±8.0 years) received functional oral care, and the other group (w/o care, mean age: 82.2±7.3 years) received no oral health care. Dental hygienists gave the care to the w/care group once a week for a period of sixmonths. Assessments included the measurements of maximum lingual pressure and the RSST, and a survey of the meal type.
The results demonstrated that the lingual force and meal type could be improved by oral function training. It was suggested that an improving lingual function was significantly important in maintaining or recovering feeding/swallowing functions by the group trained in oral function care.