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Objective: Investigating the usability of the Dutch version of the Oral Health Assessment Tool (OHAT‐NL) with informal caregivers of community‐dwelling older people with suspected dementia, without specific training. Materials and methods: In accordance with guidelines for establishing the cultural equivalency of instruments, the OHAT was translated into Dutch. Fifteen informal caregivers of community‐dwelling older people with suspected dementia and, as a reference standard, a dentist assessed the oral health of the older people using the OHAT‐NL. The caregivers' scores were compared with the dentist's scores. The usability of the OHAT‐NL was rated on a 10‐point scale (0 = incomprehensible, and 10 = very user friendly) and investigated further through short structured interviews. Results: There were differences between the dentist's and caregivers' assessments of the individual categories of the OHAT‐NL. The specificity of the need to visit an oral health care professional was 100.0%, while the sensitivity was 78.6%. The informal caregivers concluded that the tool made them more aware of different aspects of oral health. The tool was rated with a mean score of 7.7 (SD 1.7). Conclusion: The OHAT‐NL could be a useful tool for informal caregivers without specific training to indicate whether the person they care for should visit an oral health care professional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives The number of people aged 65 years or older is growing substantially. As a result of increased health burden and tooth retention, more oral health problems are expected in this age group. A poor oral health-related quality of life (OHQoL) can compromise a person's psychological state, social relationships, personal beliefs, and physical health. The aim of this systematic review was to identify oral health factors associated with OHQoL in people aged 65 years or older and to give a comprehensive overview of the body of literature for each oral health factor separately. Research Design and Methods A comprehensive search was performed in five databases. The following terms were used as index terms or free-text words: "Oral Health," "Quality of Life," "Older People." Two researchers independently assessed studies for eligibility based on predefined criteria. Results Of 3,702 references retrieved from the databases, 68 studies were eligible and included (9 randomized clinical trials, 6 cohort studies, and 53 cross-sectional studies). All results were reported descriptively. OHQoL in people aged 65 years or older is positively associated with higher number of teeth, higher number of occluding pairs, implant-retained overdentures, and the shortened dental arch concept and negatively associated with xerostomia, orofacial pain, and poor chewing ability. In the current literature, there is no consensus on the association between edentulism, caries, and periodontal conditions and OHQoL. Discussion and Implications Having a functional dentition (either natural or prosthetic) is important for a good OHQoL, whereas painful or functional complaints are associated with impaired OHQoL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a comprehensive review of the literature on the diagnosis of pain in the orofacial region of patients suffering from a cognitive impairment or a dementia. This review was based on a literature search yielding 74 papers, most of which dealt with the assessment of pain in general in nonverbal individuals, for which several observational tools were developed. Unfortunately, none of these tools have been designed for the specific assessment of orofacial or dental pain. Thus, none of them can be recommended for use in the dental setting. There is hardly any information available in the literature on how to assess orofacial and/or dental pain in patients with a cognitive impairment or a dementia. Given the expected increase in the incidence of dementia over the upcoming decades, it is of the utmost importance that dentists can use well-tested tools that can help them in the diagnosis of orofacial and dental pain in this vulnerable patient population. Such tools should incorporate specific orofacial/dental pain indicators, such as the patient holding/rubbing the painful orofacial area, limiting his/her mandibular movements, modifying his/her oral behavior, and being uncooperative/resistant to oral care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To assess the validity of the resting and chewing components of the recently developed observational diagnostic tool, the Orofacial Pain Scale for Non-Verbal Individuals (OPS-NVI). Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was carried out in two UK hospitals. A total of 56 participants with dementia who were admitted to the acute hospital were observed for 3 minutes during rest and during chewing, and the OPS-NVI was used to identify orofacial pain. Afterwards, the participants were asked about the presence of orofacial pain using self-report pain scales. The sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC) of the OPS-NVI were calculated for each activity. Spearman coefficient was calculated to assess the correlation between the number of positively scored behavior items of the OPS-NVI and the presence of orofacial pain according to self-report. Results: According to the OPS-NVI, orofacial pain was present in 5.4% of participants during rest and in 9.1% during chewing. According to self-report, the prevalence of orofacial pain was 5.4% during rest and 10.7% during chewing. The specificity of the OPS-NVI was 98.1% to 100%, the sensitivity was 66.7% to 83.3%, and the AUROC was 0.824 to 0.917. The predictive validity showed a strong correlation (0.633 to 0.930, P < .001) between the number of positive behavior items and the self-reported presence of orofacial pain. Conclusion: The resting and chewing components of the OPS-NVI showed promising concurrent and predictive validity. Nevertheless, further validation is required and highly recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the multifactorial relationship between mastication and cognition, with a focus on dementia. Older persons, especially those with dementia, are at great risk of suffering from oral health problems such as orofacial pain and loss of natural teeth. A possible explanation could be that the cognitive and motor impairments resulting from dementia cause a decrease in self-care and as such, a worsening of oral health. An alternative explanation is that cognition and oral health influence each other. Animal studies show that a decrease in masticatory activity, for example, due to a soft diet or loss of teeth, causes memory loss and neuronal degeneration. The relationship between mastication and cognition has also been researched in human studies, but a cause-effect relationship has not been proven. It is likely that multiple factors play a role in this relationship, such as self-care, nutrition, stress and pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]