Trends in domiciliary dental care including the need for oral appliances and dental technicians in Japan

Abstract

The need for domiciliary dental care (DDC) for people requiring long-term nursing care is increasing as the super-aged society of Japan grows still older. Dysphagia diagnosis and rehabilitation are becoming more important in DDC; thus, the need for prostheses used for dysphasia rehabilitation is presumed to be increasing. To identify DDC trends in Japan, as well as the need for prostheses and dental technicians for DDC, we sent a self-administered questionnaire to dentists providing DDC and analyzed responses from 138 dentists (valid response rate, 39.8%). The results showed that 37.7% of respondents reported treating ≥50 patients per month. The most frequently performed procedures were removable prosthetic treatment and oral care, followed by dysphagia rehabilitation. Use of palatal augmentation prostheses was experienced by 54.3% of respondents, and most indicated that the prostheses were effective for improvement of oropharyngeal function. The rates of cooperation with primary care doctors and nursing care professionals were 76.8% and 85.5%, respectively. Only 6.5% of respondents reported accompanying dental technicians to DDC. The present analysis of trends in DDC indicates that oral care and dysphagia rehabilitation have become more frequent and that cooperation with healthcare professionals other than dental technicians has increased in recent DDC.