Oral health care and aspiration pneumonia in frail older people: a systematic literature review.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the literature on oral health care interventions in frail older people and the effect on the incidence of aspiration pneumonia. BACKGROUND: Oral health care seems to play an important role in the prevention of aspiration pneumonia in frail older people. METHODS: Pubmed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, EMBASE and CINAHL were searched for eligible intervention studies. Only publications with regard to hospitalized or institutionalized older people, who were not dependent on mechanical ventilation were eligible. Two authors independently assessed the publications for their methodological quality. RESULTS: Five publications were included and reviewed. Two studies showed that improvement of oral health care diminished the risk of developing aspiration pneumonia and the risk of dying from aspiration pneumonia directly. The three studies remaining showed that adequate oral health care decreased the amount of potential respiratory pathogens and suggested a reduction in the risk of aspiration pneumonia by improving the swallowing reflex and cough reflex sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS: According to the results of the current systematic literature review oral health care, consisting of tooth brushing after each meal, cleaning dentures once a day, and professional oral health care once a week, seems the best intervention to reduce the incidence of aspiration pneumonia.

Dental caries and dental care level (restorative index) in children with diabetes mellitus type 1.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the study was to investigate caries experience and dental care index in diabetic children and to determine if correlation exists between caries experience and metabolic control, insulin treatment, and the duration of diabetes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study group consisted of 52 children and adolescents, 3-16 years of age with type 1 diabetes attending the outpatient diabetic clinic at Ghent University Hospital, Belgium. Fifty healthy subjects recruited from the paediatric dental clinic served as the control group. Caries lesions were assessed using DMF-index both at cavity and non-cavity levels. Participants and/or their guardians provided information about oral hygiene habits and dietary habits. Diabetes-related data (type, duration, insulin regimen) were collected from medical records and completed with the lab data on HbAlc. CONCLUSION: It became clear that, although children with type 1 diabetes mellitus could be expected to run a potential high caries risk taking into account the diabetes-associated biological and behavioural alterations, no significant differences were observed regarding caries experience and dental care between diabetic children and healthy controls. The level of untreated dental decay among the diabetic children is, however, considerably high, which was reflected by a significant lower dental attendance.