Better oral hygiene can save respiratorpatienters life

10. april 2010  
Filed in News

One of the most frequent complications in patients in hospital intensive care units are pneumonia. Lungeinfektion in connection with respiratory therapy affects not only older people, but weakened patients of all ages. In a large american study, recently published in the American Journal of Critical Care, researchers examined the effect of performing extended oral hygiene with a bl.a. suction, cleaning and brushing two times a day on respiratory therapy.

In many cases, it is in fact bacteria from the oral cavity which are the cause of the complications and thorough oral hygiene can according to the study, reduce the risk of lungebetændelsen and the resulting costs, writes Tandlægebladet.


Read more in Tandlægebladet no. 4 2010 or on the www.tandlaegebladet.dk

Oral care is important for the plejehjemsbeboeres nutritional status

15. February 2010  
Filed in News

Oral care improves nutritional status in dependent elderly show a japanese study.

Good oral care has an influence on BMI and cholesterol in the elderly

53 nursing home residents were included in the study. Which got a group of professional oral care three times weekly for a year. A second group served as the control.
When the year had elapsed, had people in both groups, among the second measured their BMI and cholesterol, and the figures were then compared.

In mundplejegruppen found no decrease in the above indicators, while in the control group measured significant decline over the past year. The authors behind the study concludes that oral care is important for nursing home residents – it helps to maintain a good nutritional status.


Read more in Tandlægebladet no. 2 2010 or on the www.tandlaegebladet.dk

The elderly do not know to hjemmetandpleje scheme

18. december 2009  
Filed in News

Hjemmetandplejen is on offer to older people and difficult people with limited mobility, who find it difficult even to give dentistry a visit. However, several hundred elderly in the municipality of Aalborg, miss out on the offer of dental care in the home, because they do not know to the scheme, writes tv2/nord.

Equipped with a small tandlægekuffert can dentist resolve most tasks in the home, which protects the elderly and severely disabled patients for a troublesome trip out of the home. But according to Aalborg Municipality's dentistry, there are a few that make use of the possibility to get the dentist to give your teeth a check out in their own home.

“We suspect that we could have almost twice as many users in the system, if any, as is justified, took the offer,” says dentist Birgit Krabsen from dental care in Aalborg municipality.

Care centers can also avail of the scheme, so that staff at the plejecentrene can concentrate on providing care and support, instead of having to set aside time to accompany the residents one by one to the dentist.

Older people with dementia suffer from poor oral hygiene

27. October 2009  
Filed in News

Dementia brings great changes – also as regards the tandsundheden. Research shows that there is a clear link between dementia and poor oral hygiene. The medicine, people with dementia taking, also, that they get dry mouth, which allows a much greater risk of dental caries and fungal infections. Dentists, carers and relatives to a far greater extent focus on the elderly, who do not even maintain a normal life.

Birita Learned, there is the dentist, assistant professor, ph.d. and researcher in Dentistry in Copenhagen, denmark, have in recent years examined the association between dementia and dental health, and the result is striking. Birita Ellefsens study shows bl.a., to the people with dementia had an average of 7 holes in the teeth, already when they got demensdiagnosen, which says something about the problems that people with dementia have with their oral hygiene.

It can mean a significant deterioration of the older people's quality of life. The consequence of poor oral hygiene can bl.a. be pain or discomfort, which can give trouble to eat. At worst, it can mean that they completely stop eating. It is therefore important that the elderly with dementia and their caregivers get the proper guidance on how they should relate to dental care when they are diagnosed, stresses Birita Learned.

– Demented patients need a specially adapted dental care. And here, the dentists the opportunity to make a difference and help to ensure that newly diagnosed dementia patients receive prevention, treatment, and follow-up they need. We have a responsibility as healthcare professionals to help to cover the upbringing and health needs, which is just of the elderly with dementia, sounds the call from Birita Learned.

Birita Learned is among the presenters at the Tandlægeforeningens two-day Symposium on 6.-7. november. A little over 1,600 dentists and 600 dental assistants participating in the event, that has the medically compromised patient as the main theme and takes place in Aarhus, denmark at the Radisson SAS Scandinavia Hotel.

– It is always good to get updated – and expanded – his professional knowledge and ability, and it is of course valid also for dentists. With a view to both the individual dentist's challenges and daily lives, but also with the aim of patients. To dentists in-service training and included in the latest treatment techniques and developments in dental care, get patients in the chair for the benefit, said Tandlægeforeningens president Susanne Andersen.