It is important to understand the causes of dry mouth and to educate our patients. Starting a prevention program as early as possible considering the most practical, cost effective and efficient treatments with the best risk-benefit ratio will help to diminish dry mouth symptoms and sequelae.

Purpose: To evaluate whether poor oral health is associated with a higher risk of malnutrition based on the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) or MNA-SF (short form) in older adults. Study Selection: For this meta-analysis, cohort and cross-sectional studies with adults 65 years and older, reporting oral health outcomes (i.e. edentulism, number of teeth) and either the MNA or MNA-SF were selected. Four electronic databases were searched (Medline via PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and EMBASE) through June 2020. Risk of bias was assessed with the checklist by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality scale. Results: A total of 928 abstracts were reviewed with 33 studies, comprising 27,559 participants, aged ≥65 being ultimately included. Meta-analyses showed that the lack of daily oral hygiene (teeth or denture cleaning), chewing problems and being partially/fully edentulous, put older adults at higher risk of malnutrition (p<0.05). After adjustment for socio-demographic variables, the included studies reported lack of autonomy for oral care, poor/moderate oral health, no access to the dentist and being edentulous with either no dentures or only one denture were risk factors significantly associated with a higher risk of malnutrition (p<0.05). Conclusions: These findings may imply that once elders become dependent on others for assistance with oral care, have decreased access to oral healthcare, and lack efficient chewing capacity, there is increased risk of malnourishment. Limitations of the study include heterogeneity of oral health variables and the observational nature of the studies. Further studies are needed to validate our findings.

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Aims This paper reviews the oral health services which were available for early (1945–1955) and late (1956–1964) baby boomers, as well as predicts their future oral healthcare needs. Methods and Results The knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes of the parents of the baby boomers toward dental hygiene and oral healthcare, are reviewed. The introduction of dental health screenings occurred from 1910 to early 1970s, the creation of the first dental hygiene school and the introduction of water fluoridation influenced oral healthcare. Technology introduced in the dental offices in the 1960s included the high‐speed handpiece, followed by intraoral suction in 1979. Baby boomers are keeping their teeth at higher rates than preceding generations due to improved prevention and advances in the treatment of periodontal disease, and overall lower rates of smoking in older adults, when compared to younger adults. However, access to dental care remains an issue for many. Advances in prevention and treatment of periodontal disease, early detection of root caries, new restorative techniques, and improved technologies to replace teeth are also discussed. Conclusions Early detection of periodontal disease, oral, and oropharyngeal cancer, risk factors for tooth loss and untreated caries are needed to improve the oral health for baby boomers. Access to oral healthcare is still an issue due to socio‐economic disparities in America.

The objective of this review is to determine the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy, oral and topical medications as well as dietary supplements to reduce pain in burning mouth syndrome patients (BMS). Methods: The Cochrane Library, Medline via PubMed and Web of Science were searched. Eligible studies were limited to randomized placebo-controlled trials on interventions used to treat BMS. Risk of bias was independently assessed in triplicate. Results: Twenty-two studies were included in this review. Fifteen reported baseline and post-treatment pain intensity, however due to the heterogeneity of the interventions subgroup analyses are presented by intervention. Subgroup analyses on the reduction of pain with alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) showed no significant difference with placebo (p=.713). However, a subgroup analysis with four studies showed ALA improved patients' symptoms significantly (RR=2.676; 95% CI 1.933 to 3.705; p<.001). Individual studies showed significant improvement in pain intensity with topical clonazepam (p<.001), capsaicin (p<.001), catuama (p=.009), and CBT (p<.001). No significant differences were found in individual studies reporting pain reduction with benzydamine HCl, chamomile, H. perforatum, lidocaine, lycopene-enriched olive oil and trazodone (p>.05). Pooled results with two studies each showed capsaicin (p<.001) and CBT (p=.031) significantly improved patients' symptoms. Conclusions: Low quality of evidence is available due to heterogeneity of the interventions, unclear or high risk of bias and differences in outcomes reported resulting in small number of studies included in each subgroup analysis. ALA, topical clonazepam, CBT, catuama and capsaicin should be studied further in high quality randomized clinical trials to provide recommendations for BMS patients.