2023 Volume 66 Issue 3 Pages 173-178
Purpose: This study investigated the dental hygienist activities of caring for the elderly in a nursing facility and the relationship between dental hygienist activities and degree of support/level of care needed by the patients.
Methods: Six nursing facilities for the elderly were selected in which the facilities were visited to perform common dental treatments by the Department of Comprehensive Dental Support, Asahi University Medical and Dental Center. A total of 384 patients (men: 123 and women: 261, mean age: 83.9 years) with certified levels of long-term support/care needs were surveyed. The number of items of dental hygienist activities (tooth cleaning, denture management, care of oral mucosa, oral functional training, meal rounds, and feeding function training) was counted from the patients’ clinical records and dental hygienists’ daily work records. The patients were categorized by degree of support (1 and 2) and level of care needed (1 to 5). The relationship between dental hygienist activities and degree of support/level of care needed was statistically analyzed using Pearson’s chi-squared test, Fisher’s exact test, and odds ratio with 5% significance level.
Results: Items, such as meal rounds and feeding function training, were not recorded. Dental hygienist activities for the patients that needed only support were tooth cleaning and denture management, while oral mucosa care and functional training were included in the group that needed care. Dental hygienist activities tended to be performed more often for patients with level of care needed of ≥3.
Conclusion: The items of dental hygienist activities were influenced by the degree of support/level of care needed by the patients.
