Assessment of the oral health condition of nursing home residents by primary care nurses

Abstract

We interviewed 36 primary care nurses in three Dutch nursing homes regarding the functional oral health and dental treatment needs of 331 care-dependent residents (average age 77.8 years). The nurses assessed the residents' oral health condition as good (8.3 on a scale of 0 to 10). Edentulous residents wearing dentures were considered to have better functional oral health than dentate residents wearing partial dentures and edentulous residents not wearing dentures. According to the nurses, only 9% of the residents required dental treatment. This finding is in contrast with an intraoral study of the same population, in which dentists determined that 73% of the residents needed dental treatment.

Perceptions of older people’s oral health care among nurses working in geriatric home care

“…In addition, dental hygienists have been found to be willing to offer treatment, but their self-perceived competency was insufficient to carry out such measures [17]. Nurses often have limited training and knowledge about older people's oral treatment needs [18][19][20]. In our study, earlier oral health education was forgotten and on-the-job training was scarce.…”

Elderly with remaining teeth report less frailty and better quality of life than edentulous elderly: a cross‐sectional study

“…As mentioned above, lower SES seems to be related to general health and oral health (Vettore et al , ), so participants with a lower SES probably had a higher risk of becoming frail and/or ending up with oral health problems. This points toward the need to urge elderly to continue to visit their dentists and to maintain an adequate level of oral care, either by themselves or, when they are not able to self‐maintain their oral health, by caregivers (Gerritsen et al , ). Unfortunately, this need to safeguard a proper level of oral care was not common in our community‐living participants, especially in edentulous elderly of whom only 20% visited the dentist, oral hygienist, or dental technician the last two years.…”

Oral health care‐related beliefs among Finnish geriatric home care nurses

“…Lack of time to pay attention to oral health during home visits may be the reason why middle‐age nurses score low on the factor Retaining teeth as one ages , although they score higher on the factor How to prevent dental diseases . Generally, the nurses had no confidence in their ability to manage oral diseases, which speaks of the need to improve oral health care by educating nursing staff and promoting cooperation between different spheres of operations .…”

“…These nurses however, often have limited training and knowledge about older people's oral treatment needs . Today, most nursing curricula include either minimal oral health care or none at all.…”