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.

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The number of complete denture wearers will rise with the increase in the elderly population. Long-term use of ill-fitting dentures causes mechanical injury and deformation of the basal seat mucosa. Tissue conditioners are used to restore the deformed unhealthy basal seat mucosa and to return it to the normal position by distributing the load applied at mastication. However, the main problem with this material is that the plasticizer will gradually leach out causing the material to harden. Therefore in this study, we examined the influence of different solutions on the dynamic viscoelasticity, surface roughness and compliance. We used a new tissue conditioner “TissueCare” (TC) and 3 commercial tissue conditioners; COE-Comfort (CC), Shofu Tissue Conditioner II (STC) and Bosworth Softone (BST). Distilled water, artificial sali-va and cottonseed oil were used for the solution. The dynamic viscoelasticity was most stable over time with material TC. Surface roughness was most stable over time with STC. Artificial saliva had the largest effect on the surface roughness of materials. TC satisfied ISO standard, and it was classified in class II of the low initial compliance. The influence of solution and immersion time on the dynamic viscoelasticity, sur-face roughness and compliance of the material was different. The results suggest that the new tissue conditioner “TissueCare” is extremely durable, and should be used clinically mainly for temporary relining.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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