Power Toothbrush Use in Nursing Homes to Eliminate Mouth and Body Inflammation

University of Manitoba

Status: Completed

Conditions: Periodontal Disease

Treatments: Other: Standard Care; Device: Rotating-oscillating Power Toothbrush

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01639183

H2012:227

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether brushing the teeth of nursing home residents with a power toothbrush as compared with standard care typically provided in nursing homes, will increase caregiver compliance with the provision of daily oral care as well as lower oral and systemic inflammation.

Full description

It is well recognized worldwide that residents of nursing homes have poor oral health primarily due to caregiver resistance in the provision of daily oral hygiene care. Fear of being bitten or assaulted by the resident as well as lack of time and discomfort with working in the mouth, are reasons cited for this resistance. It is also now recognized that inflammation in the mouth can raise overall inflammation within the body potentially leading to serious health consequences. Numerous studies involving periodic professional interventions as well as education and training of caregivers in oral care provision have not met with a great deal of success. Caregivers in some studies have indicated preference to power toothbrushes as they are bulkier and longer eliminating the need for insertion of fingers into the mouth and subsequently alleviating fears of being bitten. This study hypothesizes that caregiver utilization of a power toothbrush may increase their compliance with daily oral care provision and could potentially result in elimination of oral and systemic inflammation.

Enrollment: 58 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Residents of Nursing Home
• Presence of any natural teeth
• Non-aggressive behavior
• Presence of Periodontal inflammation

Exclusion criteria

• Smoking
• Comatose
• On a ventilator
• Aggressive behavior
• Presence of communicable disease
• On antibiotics

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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58 participants in 2 patient groups

Rotating-oscillating Power Toothbrush

Experimental group

Description:

Nursing home residents will be randomly assigned to receive power toothbrushing twice daily by their caregivers using a rotating-oscillating power toothbrush.

Treatment:

Device: Rotating-oscillating Power Toothbrush

Standard Care

Active Comparator group

Description:

This arm comprises the control group where nursing home residents will receive standard daily oral care as usual.

Treatment:

Other: Standard Care