Abstract
Objective: We investigated the effect of professional oral health care by dental hygienists onrespirato-ry infection control and reduction of long-term careneeds in elderly persons requiring regular care on along-term basis.
Methods: The participants in this study were 96 elderly persons visiting day care service facilitiesonce a week, from October 2003 to March 2004. All were randomly assigned, either to an intervention group, to receive professional oral health care by a dental hygienist, or to an own oral care group, as a control group.The intervention group was trained in daily oral cleansing and given professional oral cleansing once a week. We compared the participants'activity of daily living (ADL) before and after the intervention.
Results: Rates of respiratory infection in the intervention and own oral care groups were 8.2% and25.5%, respectively. It was found that professional oral care resulted in a reduction in long-term care needs in 26.6% of the participants. On the other hand, the reduction in care needs in the own oral care group, was only 6.4%. We found a correlation between the decrease of long-term care needs and the reduction in the rate of respiratory infection.
Conclusion: The results demonstrate that professional oral health care is effective in reducing the rate of respiratory infection and long-term care needs in elderly persons.
