Effect of oral exercise on oral health and subjective experience of oral function among elderly in care hospital

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of oral exercise on oral health and subjective experience of oral functions among elderly who are in the care hospital. Among a total of 105 elderly who are older than 65 years, 53 and 52 participants were randomly assigned to intervention and control group respectively. For 3 months, oral exercise along with oral hygiene care was done once a day, five days per a week to elderly by trained caregivers in intervention group only. For control group, education on oral hygiene care was done once. Before and after oral intervention, plaque index and salivary secretion rate were examined. And questionnaire was surveyed to assess subjective feeling about oral function such as hard food intake difficulty, spilling the food, gum bleeding, drying mouth, swallowing difficulty. After 3 months, significant improvement in plaque reduction and salivary secretion were observed in participants of intervention group (p<0.005). Also significant improvement in subjective feeling about oral function was observed in intervention group(p<0.05). Therefore we suggest oral exercise along with oral hygiene care to improve oral health of older people who are in the care hospital.