A novel rapid oral bacteria detection apparatus for effective oral care to prevent pneumonia

Abstract

To clarify the oral environment, we evaluated the usefulness and clinical applicability of a new apparatus developed for the simple and rapid quantification of oral bacteria. Professional oral health care can reduce the number of oral bacteria and days of fever and inhibit the development of pneumonia. A novel detection apparatus was developed by applying the dielectrophoretic impedance measurement method. First, to determine the accuracy of this apparatus, employing standard samples of Escherichia coli. Next, to evaluate the oral environment, samples were taken from the tongue in elderly (mean age: 86.6 years) in nursing home. In the first study, a good correlation was observed between the two methods (R = 0.999). In the second study, there were significant correlations between measurement values obtained using this apparatus and those obtained by the culture method (R = 0.852), as well as those obtained by the FM method (R = 0.885). Our data showed that this rapid oral bacterial detection apparatus is effective in evaluating the oral hygiene to prevent pneumonia in the elderly.