Effect of Oral Health Care on Swallowing Function and Swallowing-Quality of Life in Patients with Dementia

The Review of Interventions to Improve the Swallowing Function in the Elderly

“…Swallowing function can be improved by strengthening oral function such as improving oral-facial muscle or improving saliva flow ability or reducing swallowing discomfort. Previous interventions studies for improving oral function related to swallowing were confirmed their effectiveness: Tongue muscle strengthening exercises using PEKO PANDA (PEKO PANDA Ⓡ ; JMS CO., LTD, Hiroshima, Japan) 13) or IOPI (IOPI; IOPI Medical LLC, Woodinville, WA, USA) 14) , head and neck strengthening Exercise 15) , singing interventions 16) , oral health care 17) , gum chewing exercises 18) . Various studies on interventions for swallowing function in the elderly suggest the necessity and importance of interventions, but the study design, intervention methods, and evaluation methods between these studies are very different, making it difficult to compare the effects between interventions and to generalize.…”