Can a Low-threshold Check-up Motivate Older People to Schedule a Dental Visit?

University Ghent

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Oral Disease

Treatments: Procedure: Oral screening

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06341959

GerodentPLUS1

Details and patient eligibility

About

There is little research on the effect of oral screening campaigns for improving oral health in older people. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of a low-threshold contact with an oral health professional, including an oral health examination, on dental attendance of older people (65 years of age or older).

Full description

The intervention group will be provided with tools to facilitate dental contact and will be informed about the importance of regular dental visits. Participants are given the opportunity to receive an oral examination. Afterwards, each participant will receive brochures with oral hygiene instructions to take home. Participants will receive information about any identified oral pathology. A referral letter for the dentist and a report for the general practitioner will also be prepared to increase social influence. If the participant doesn't have a dentist, the participant will receive a list of contact information for dentists in the area.

In the control group, no oral examination will be performed. However, participants will be given a list of nearby dentists and flyers with oral hygiene instructions.

In this way, we want to find out whether the presence of a dental professional with tailored advice is crucial to motivate an elderly person to good oral care.

Enrollment: 194 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 65 years of age or older
• home-dwelling within the selected regions (ELZ RITS en ELZ Scheldekracht)
• Dutch speaking
• no dental check-up in the last 12 months
• sufficient cognitive ability to answer the questions

Exclusion criteria

• Failure to meet inclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

---

194 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention Group

Experimental group

Description:

The intervention group will be provided with tools to facilitate dental contact and will be informed about the importance of regular dental visits. Participants are given the opportunity to receive an oral examination. Afterwards, each participant will receive brochures with oral hygiene instructions to take home. Participants will receive information about any identified oral pathology. A referral letter for the dentist and a report for the general practitioner will also be prepared to increase social influence. If the participant doesn't have a dentist, the participant will receive a list of contact information for dentists in the area.

Treatment:

Procedure: Oral screening

Control Group

No Intervention group

Description:

In the control group, no oral examination will be performed. However, participants will be given a list of nearby dentists and flyers with oral hygiene instructions.