Assessment of the oral health condition of nursing home residents by primary care nurses.

We interviewed 36 primary care nurses in three Dutch nursing homes regarding the functional oral health and dental treatment needs of 331 care-dependent residents (average age 77.8 years). The nurses assessed the residents' oral health condition as good (8.3 on a scale of 0 to 10). Edentulous residents wearing dentures were considered to have better functional oral health than dentate residents wearing partial dentures and edentulous residents not wearing dentures. According to the nurses, only 9% of the residents required dental treatment. This finding is in contrast with an intraoral study of the same population, in which dentists determined that 73% of the residents needed dental treatment.

Integrated versus incidental dental care in nursing homes.

PURPOSE/AIM: In most of the 334 Dutch nursing homes, incidental dental care is provided upon indication by the medical and nursing staff. However, more and more nursing homes offer integrated dental care, where a dentist works on a structural basis in facilities within the home. METHODS: To evaluate the costs and effects of integrated versus incidental care, we studied the oral status and treatment needs in two nursing homes in the same city with 175 and 120 residents an average age of 81.7 and 79.3 years, respectively. RESULTS: In the integrated care home, the dentist spent an average 2.2 hours/year per resident at a cost of €229 for the dentist's work and €143 for laboratory costs. In the incidental care home, these values were 0.1 hours/year per resident at a cost of €15 for the dentist's work and €20 for laboratory costs. CONCLUSIONS: With integrated care, 55.6% of the residents had no oral treatment need versus 13.1% for incidental care, more edentulous residents wore dentures, and residents had less soft tissue pathology.