Oral health care services for community‐dwelling older people with dementia: A scoping review

• Published in: Gerodontology Vol. 40; no. 3; pp. 288 - 298
• Main Authors: Ho, Bach Van, Maarel‐Wierink, Claar D., Vries, Ralph, Lobbezoo, Frank
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01-09-2023
• Subjects: Aged; community dwelling; Cross-Sectional Studies; Delivery of Health Care; dementia; health care services; Humans; Independent Living; older people; Oral Health; oral health care; Oral Hygiene; community dwelling; dementia; oral health; older people; health care services; oral health care
• ISSN: 0734-0664; 1741-2358
• DOI: 10.1111/ger.12670

Objective
To assess whether, and if so, which oral health care services for community‐dwelling older people with dementia are available.
Background
Oral health in people with dementia is poor compared with people without dementia. Although multiple oral health care interventions have previously been studied for older people living in nursing homes, little is known about interventions or services for community‐dwelling older people with dementia.
Materials and methods
A literature search was performed in the databases Pubmed, Embase and CINAHL. The following search terms were used: “Dementia”, “Oral health”, “Dental health services” and “Older person”. The term “dental health services” was intended to be an as broad as possible construct because limited search results were expected.
Results
The search generated 1624 unique references, of which seven studies were eligible for inclusion (four cohort studies, one cross‐sectional study, and two qualitative studies). The included studies described two actual oral health care services: a telephone help line on oral health and dementia, and a mobile geriatric dental programme in adult day health centres. A need was found for services and strategies specific to community‐dwelling older people with dementia. One identified solution was an intervention with individually tailored daily oral hygiene self‐care supported by the informal caregiver. Furthermore, increasing accessibility of oral health care professionals with treatment at other locations than their own practices, better collaboration between health care professionals and preventive oral health care are highly necessary.
Conclusion
There is limited evidence on the availability of oral health care services for community‐dwelling older people with dementia, while a need was found for oral health care services that focus on good accessibility, oral hygiene self‐care, preventive strategies and collaboration among health care professionals.