Ronen Shika Igaku

The ability of the following four denture cleaners to eliminate Candida albicans (C. albicans), which causes denture stomatitis, was investigated: Pika, Polident, Tafudent and Korekuto. Four clinical strains of C. albicans isolated from the mouths of elderly individuals were used to form in vitro biofilms.
These four strains of C. albicans were then subjected to each of the four denture cleaners, and after a period of 30 minutes, significant elimination was confirmed with all four cleaners when compared to distilled water (control). However, it took more than 60 minutes to eliminate most of the biofilm-forming C. albicans attached to the bottom of plates. Furthermore, to ensure almost complete removal of all biofilm-forming C. albicans, 6 hours was required, rising to 24 hours for one of the denture cleaners.
The results of the present study clarify that it is necessary to soak dentures for a long period of time to sufficiently eliminate biofilm-forming C. albicans, and that the degree of C. albicans elimination can be used as a means of evaluating denture cleaners effectiveness.

View full abstract

Show abstractHide abstract

A number of institutionalized or hospitalized elderly have suffered from protein-energy malnutrition (PEM). Also, many elderly have lost many teeth and have impaired oral functions. However, the relation-ship between PEM and oral health is discussed here because previous studies have only focused on the number of teeth and the occlusion, and have not taken the tongue function, which plays an important role in oropharyngeal swallowing, into consideration. In this study, we evaluated the tongue pressure using our new handy device and compared the value of the PEM risk group and control group, defined as 3.5g/dl serum albumin or 5% loss of body weight. Sex and mean age was not significant between 27 subjects of the PEM risk group and 56 of the control group.
The results obtained were as follows:
1) The number of teeth and occlusional status were not significantly different between the PEM risk and control groups.
2) The tongue pressure values were significantly different between these two groups (p<0.05).
3) The mean scores of the Barthel index were significantly different between the two groups (p<0.05).
These results suggested that in the institutionalized elderly the tongue pressure was associated with nutritional status. They may reflect the same aging effect as sarcopenia.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1361K)

Register with J-STAGE for free!