People with severe mental health difficulties are more likely to have poor dental health and dental disorders

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Masuma Pervin Mishu summarises an umbrella review on the prevalence of dental disorders among people with severe mental illness.

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Oral hygiene programmes for people with intellectual disabilities

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This Cochrane review of oral hygiene interventions for people with intellectual difficulties included 34 studies (19 RCTs, 15 non-randomised studies) find some interventions provided benefits but their clinical importance was unclear.

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Mobile apps- can then improve dental health?

This RCT looked at whether Mentalization Based Treatment for Adolescents reduced self-harming beahviour

This review of the effectiveness of mobile applications and text messages on oral health included 15 RCTs providing very low quality evidence of reduction is plaque and gingival bleeding.

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Children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities: oral health status

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This review of oral health status in people with intellectual disabilities included 39 studies. Higher level of dental plaque, worse gingival status, and fewer decayed and filled permanent teeth were seen than in patients without intellectual disabilities.

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Oral care in nursing homes

This study is the first of its kind from an RCT perspective which clearly shows that treating major depression in older adults using interventions in primary care settings can extend life

Mark-Steven Howe takes a look at a review evaluating the effectiveness of strategies that nursing home care providers can apply to impove the uptake and delivery of oral care in nursing homes

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Oral care for critically ill ventilated patients

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38 RCTs were included in this Cochrane review update of oral health care in ventilated patients. High quality evidence was found to show that chlorhexidine mouthwash or gel reduces the risk of developing ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically ill patients from 25% to about 19%.

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Oral Health should have same priority as general health in care homes says NICE

Quality of life measures are one way of finding out how people are feeling about and experiencing their new life in a care home.

This new guidance from NICE focuses on improving and maintaining residents’ day-to-day oral healthcare, ensuring staff are properly trained to confidently look after the oral health needs of residents, and there is adequate access to dental services when needed

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Social media and care of orthodontic appliances

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This randomised trial examined the use of social media (YouTube ) for the provision of patient information to those undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment. A larger improvement in knowledge was seen in the YouTube group at 6-8 weeks.

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Oral health improvement in care homes

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This cluster randomised controlled trial looked at changes in knowledge and attitudes in care homes following the introduction of an oral health care protocol. Significant improvements in knowledge were seen but no changes in attitudes.

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Barriers experienced by dentists in delivering care to older people

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An increase in the proportion of older people in the population is evidence, with those aged 65 years of age and above expected to increase from 19 to 25 % in Europe by 2025.  Coupled with an improvement in oral health over the past 30 years this means a higher proportion of these older people [read the full story…]