Xerostomia and other consequences of pSS can have a profound influence on daily life. However, the severity of the consequences depends on individual experiences with the illness, social influences and the psychological responses of the patient. Physicians, dentists and other healthcare professionals can help the patient by listening to their problems and exploring solutions based on a psychological approach.
Los estudiantes de odontología son agentes involucrados en la educación de los cuidados bucodentales. No se han publicado estudios nacionales que describan sus hábitos de higiene oral.
Oral health practices and beliefs among caregivers of the dependent elderlyBackground: Caregivers deal with oral health care of the dependent elderly; however, this has a low priority among them, and their education in daily oral care is deficient. Therefore, studying the oral care practices as well as their oral health beliefs is important as these affect the quality of the oral care they perform. Objective: To compare formal and informal caregivers' oral care practices and oral health beliefs when taking care of severely dependent elderly. Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a convenience sample of 21 formal caregivers from a long-term residence and 18 informal caregivers from a local primary health care domiciliary programme. Caregivers were surveyed using a questionnaire designed to elicit oral care practices and oral health beliefs. The nursing Dental Coping Beliefs Scale questionnaire was translated and validated in Chile. Results: Significant differences were observed between formal and informal caregivers' performance of some oral health care practices. There were no significant differences between formal and informal caregivers' oral health beliefs. Conclusions: Although there are some differences in formal and informal caregivers' oral health care practices, we cannot state that one caregiver's performance is better than the other, in fact, negative oral health beliefs were found in both groups.
The Spanish version of the nursing Dental Coping Beliefs Scale is a questionnaire that has an internal consistency to be used as an instrument to measure oral health beliefs among caregivers, however, future investigations must re-evaluate there psychometric characteristics, specially its stability as an instrument.
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