Oral Hygiene Analysis

Introduction Oral hygiene is critically important when it comes to the overall health of an individual. Not only is the mouth and teeth inside used for speaking, chewing, and swallowing, but insufficient oral hygiene can lead to an influx of bacteria in the mouth, which increases the risk of malnutrition, stroke, diabetes, heart disease, and respiratory infections like influenza or pneumonia (Compton & Kline, 2015, p.12). With this is mind, the importance of performing oral hygiene on dependent people in old age is apparent. Unfortunately, there are countless barriers that hinder achieving this goal in residential care, such as a lack of appropriate assessment tools for oral

Background Oral hygiene is not just important for health, but also for well-being, for a cleaned mouth provides a refreshed feeling, and healthy teeth provide a nice appearance. In home or residential care, some of the residents may have physical limitations that inhibit them from taking care of their oral health like a stroke or general weakness, or they could have mental limitations, like dementia, and simply forget brush or floss their teeth (Lloyd & Woodbeck, 2014, p.57). I arrived at the topic of oral hygiene in home or residential care due to what one of my nursing said instructors last semester in one of her lectures. She mentioned that it was not uncommon for residents in long term care facilities to only get their teeth brushed once a week because it is something that can be easily skipped by the care staff due to the difficulties involved and their time restraints, as the care aides often have nine to twelve residents to take care of. She went on to mentioned that she always provides oral

This article begins by describing how poor oral health heightens the rate of preventable hospitalizations, and that there is literature that “describes the aged care workforce as lacking the appropriate oral health knowledge and skills to provide effective oral health care for older people” (2016, p.273). After setting the scene, the article states it purpose, which is to test their Better Oral Health in Home Care (BOHHC) model to see if it can improve the oral health in residents in residential care, or help maintain it if it is already in good condition. The BOHCC is a four process oral health assessment tool, that consists of a six question oral health assessment, oral health-care planning, oral health care, and dental referral and treatment (2016, p. 274). The research in this article was conducted through a mixed method research design, and their data collection, which was obtained from older home care residents, occurred through a pre to post implementation using their BOHHC model (2016, p. 274). The methods used included pre and post implementation audits for oral health assessments and oral health-care planning, pre and post training questionnaires for oral healthcare service delivery, and data from oral health assessment was used to