Abstract
With the increasing numbers of the elderly requiring care in Japan, the management of their oral health care will require cooperation between medical and dental professionals, and we need to transfer dental knowledge from dental professionals to caregivers. With the help of a questionnaire, we examined 181 caregivers’ depth of understanding regarding 20 typical dental terms with a view to improving the educational instruction provided to them. It was found that except for “clasp”, popular dental terms have largely been accepted. The differences in their degrees of understanding could be owing to the lack of systematic education for caregivers.
Highlights
In this ultra-aged society with an increasing number of the elderly requiring care in Japan, effective and high-quality nursing care is required
The results of this study revealed the depth of understanding of dental terms among caregivers in nursing facilities
The results of this study demonstrate that caregivers have a baseline knowledge of oral health
Summary
In this ultra-aged society with an increasing number of the elderly requiring care in Japan, effective and high-quality nursing care is required. It has often been reported that the decline in oral function is closely related to pneumonia [1,2,3,4,5,6], cognitive decline [7,8], decline in the quality of life [9,10,11], and the progress of frailty [12,13]. Oral health management of the elderly requires cooperation between dental professionals and caregivers. As there are few dental professionals in nursing care facilities in Japan [14], caregivers play an important role in managing oral health [11,15]. In order to achieve effective and high-quality oral health care in such facilities, it is necessary to enhance the concerned comprehension and skills of caregivers
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