Zeitschrift für Mundhygiene und Gesundheit

Abstrakt

Modifying Oral hygiene Techniques to Improve the Oral Health of Alzheimer's/Dementia Patients with Limited Dexterity

Erin Dick, Friedrick Rachael, Stephanie Riaz

The deterioration of cognitive functions, such as executive functioning, working memory, attention, aphasia, and apraxia, complicates the ability to perform oral care in people with dementia. Functional changes in dementia, such as a decline in hand grip strength and manual dexterity, can complicate oral care. This can lead to a higher occurrence of gingivitis and periodontitis. Periodontitis has been associated with multiple systemic health conditions besides AD, such as diabetes mellitus type II and cardiovascular disease. Maintaining good oral hygiene at home plays a quintessential part in reducing systemic health risks and maintaining good oral health. Improvement of oral hygiene and oral health of older people with dementia can be accomplished by administration of oral hygiene instruction (OHI) to formal and informal caregivers to assist and support the patient, the use of oral hygiene screening tools, and regular, consistent professional dental care.