A group of Scottish Specialty Registrars in Special Care Dentistry look at a recent review of available measurement tools for assessing oral health and orofacial pain in dependent adults, which can be used by the non-dental caregivers. Nine tools were identified and despite a lack of comprehensive testing a number demonstrate reliability and validity.
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Murtada Alsaif considers a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Lancet Psychiatry exploring the response of different subgroups of patients with schizophrenia to different antipsychotic drugs.
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Karen Mak considers a recent study that explores the associations between participation in community arts groups and aspects of wellbeing in older adults in the US.
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This review summarising global data on the prevalence of edentulism and dental caries of people aged ≥45 years living in the community included 86 studies. The estimated global prevalence of edentulism in those ≥45 years was 22% (95%CI; 19 to 24%).
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In this blog Carly Ross assess a review of the associations between objectively assessed masticatory performance, chronic systemic diseases and physical function in older adults.
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This review of the effectiveness of professionally applied fluoride therapy in preventing and arresting dental caries in older adults aged 60 years or above included 7 studies. The findings suggest that 5% NaF varnish, 38% SDF solution, and 1.23% APF gel were effective in preventing root caries but the studies were varied in treatment protocols, intervention method and follow-up period so more research in needed.
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Clarissa Giebel reviews a recent study exploring the impact of auditory hallucinations on ‘living well’ with dementia using findings from the IDEAL programme.
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In this blog Carly Ross takes a look at a review assessing the association between social isolation and oral health in adults. The findings suggested no strong association however, only 4 studies were included and these were of limited quality.
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Carly Ross considers a review of the prevalence of chewing difficulty in older people in institutional long-term care. Only 10 cross-sectional studies were included in the review providing an estimated prevalence of chewing difficulties of 23% (95%CI; 1 to 53%) based on low certainty evidence.
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Maisha Kroll reviews a recent qualitative study exploring the help-seeking views relating to depression among older Black Caribbean adults living in the UK.
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