People with schizophrenia exhibit a wide range of social disabilities. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether oral care improved the oral condition and salivary stress markers in elderly patients with schizophrenia.
Twenty elderly patients with chronic schizophrenia (10 men and 10 women, mean age 69.2 years) in Sapporo Hanazono Hospital, who provided written informed consent, were included in this study. A weekly oral care intervention was performed on these subjects for 16 weeks.
There were significant improvement in the levels of oral condition in the subjects after the oral care intervention for 16 weeks. Furthermore, there was a significant decrease in the levels of salivary amylase after oral health care intervention.
This study suggests that receiving adequate oral care improved the oral condition in elderly patients with schizophrenia.

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Dentures can be made by considering the load pressure distribution, and it is thought that the maintenance of the state of the mandible bank is possible by clarifying the dentures' load pressure distribution below the floor level. This study aimed to insert a film pressure distribution measurement sensor sheet under the denture floor mucous membrane, and to construct a system to measure in real time the denture's load pressure distribution below the floor level mucous membrane in the mouth. The development of the sensor, the denture load pressure measurement below the floor level tissue, and the system for synchronization and digital video shooting were developed as the first stage.
The pressure distribution measurement sensor sheet (Nitta) was improved, the sensor was produced, and installed on a full denture. There were six sensor installation sites in total. The bite of the center occlusion and right lateral occlusion was measured five times.
Especially, the front tooth load pressure was the highest in the centric occlusion and the right lateral occlusion. The load in the right lateral occlusion indicated a significant load increase to the right. This approximated to the basic research result, and showed a positive correlation.
The load pressure distribution below the denture floor level in the mouth was effectively measured in real time using the updated sensor.

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Oral bacteria counts are used as an assessment index for oral health care. In this study, we examine the effect of pressure applied to the swab in order to standardize the collection of swab samples.
Samples were collected from the tongues of 35 healthy adults. The swabs were attached to a device to achieve sample collection pressures of 5, 20 and 40 g. Bacterial counts were made on each swab by a bacteria counter using the dielectrophoretic impedance measurement method, and compared.
The results showed that higher bacterial counts were obtained with higher sample collection pressures (p<0.01); further, bacterial counts were significantly different for swabs taken at sampling pressures of 5 and 20 g and 5 and 40 g (p<0.01). As variations in sampling pressure applied to the tongue are inherent in manual swabbing, it is necessary to standardize sample collection pressure for measuring oral bacterial counts as an assessment index. Considering the stability of swabbing and the patients' comfort, pressure of 20 g is suitable for sampling from the tongue.

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Accidental ingestion or aspiration of dental foreign bodies may occur not only during dental treatment but also in various other situations. In most cases, the foreign bodies pass harmlessly through the gastrointestinal tract and are eliminated, but in some cases serious complications arise such as esophageal erosion, appendicitis, airway obstruction and pneumonia. In this report, we review seven cases of accidental ingestion or aspiration of dental foreign bodies in the Department of Endoscopy in our hospital during the period December, 2005 to December, 2008.
The mean age of these patients, five males and two females, was 70.7±20.5 years. In three cases, foreign bodies were retained in the stomach, and two in the bronchus, one in the pharynx and one in the esophagus. The foreign bodies, all of which were successfully extracted by endoscope or bronchoscope, were dental prostheses, endodontic instrument, and tooth avulsion.
Besides taking adequate precautions to prevent accidental ingestion or aspiration, it is recommended that each facility should prepare guidelines for the management of these accidents to avoid medical complications.

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[in Japanese]

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The aim of this study was to investigate some tests for oral dryness patients, and to examine the influence of age and the relationship among the tests.
The subjects were 37 oral dryness patients, divided to two groups; one group under 64 years old (13 patients) and the other group over 65 years old (24 patients). Four tests were performed : flow rate of rest saliva, Saxon test, oral moisture, and RSST. The results of each test between the two groups were compared by a Mann-Whitney Test. Spearman's rank correlation was performed to analyze the correlation between the tests.
There were no statistically significant differences on the results of each test between the two groups. There was no correlation between the tests on the group under 64 years old. There was a statistically significant correlation between the Saxon test and RSST (r=0.44, p<0.05) on the group over 65 years old.
The results of this study made it clear that the tests for oral dryness patients indicated the degree of oral dryness. Therefore, the flow rate of rest saliva, Saxon test, and oral moisture were effective tests for oral dryness. There was correlation between the Saxon test and RSST, and it was suggested that the oral dryness patients with a low level of stimulated saliva would have swallowing dysfunction.

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