New Technique to Improve Oral Hygiene in Patients with Dementia

Dementia is a condition that affects the brain functions of the patient. He struggles with memory loss, behavioral problems, difficulty in speaking, judgment and thinking abilities.

In most of the cases, they are unable to care for themselves, so help from the outside is needed with everyday routine tasks such as proper hygiene.

Unfortunately, nursing a person who has been diagnosed with dementia is quite difficult. When the staff needs to take care of the dental hygiene of the patient, things might get even more complicated.

Dementia patients have in general quite a poor dental hygiene and when someone might try to help them clean their teeth, they feel threatened and start to bite or fight back.

Since a proper solution has been needed for this problem, assistant professor of nursing from the Penn State University, Rita Jablonski ran a pilot study. She and her team were trying to come up with a unique technique that would help improve dental hygiene of dementia patients. The study was entitled MOUTh – or Managing Oral Hygiene Using Threat Reduction.

Jablonski states that the team has come up with as many as 15 different techniques and strategies that help reducing threat perception. In other words, these techniques help patients with dementia improve their mouth care, through implementing resistive behavior as a reaction to the perceived threat.

The patient was approached at eye level while they were in the sitting position, and with the help of smiling, gestures and different pantomimes, they were actually guided to perform their own dental care.

The study lasted for two weeks, and the subjects involved dementia patients of all stages, from moderate to severe. By the end of the study, the oral hygiene of the patients has got much better, thanks to the techniques utilized. The oral hygiene of the patients has been measured with the Oral Health Assessment Tool both before and after the study.

The MOUTh technique may easily become the best solution to helping patients suffering from dementia from all over the world improve their dental health.