Effective Management Strategies for Oral Hygiene in Dementia Patients in Aged Care Facilities

Running head: REPORT
Assessment task 1
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1REPORT
Executive Summary
Good oral health has been identified crucial for health and wellbeing. With a progress in
dementia, a neurological condition that results in a deterioration of cognitive faculties such
as, memory and thinking, establishment of a good dental program becomes essential. The
report found that older people suffering from dementia become frail and lose the capabilities
of conducting their activities of daily living such as, showering and grooming. Besides, use of
certain medications were also found to exert an impact on oral health. The report aimed to
formulate effective management strategies by using different theories such as, Tuckman’s
theory and the behavioural theory of management, all of which were directed at improving
the oral health and lowering the risks of poor dental health development among patients in
the aged care facility.

2REPORT
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Literature review........................................................................................................................3
Recommendations......................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

3REPORT
Introduction
Aged care facilities refer to special-purpose health facilities that are designed in a way
that helps in providing accommodation and different other kinds of support to older adults.
This commonly includes assistance in their intensive care, daily living, and independence of
aged and frail person (Broad et al., 2013). In other words, aged care facilities are aimed for
providing assistance to those individuals who are no longer able to live in their homes, due to
bereavement, illness, disability, and emergency. Their immediate carers are not usually able
to address these conditions properly, without help. Dementia is an umbrella term that is used
for describing a range of symptoms that are associated with a gradual and progressive decline
in memory functions and thinking skills. These symptoms are severe enough to lower the
ability of an affected person to perform activities of daily living (Prince et al., 2013). The
condition most commonly arises due to physical alterations in the brain. Oral hygiene and
health is often overlooked by adults having dementia in, during their stay in aged care
centres. Good oral health has been identified imperative for the overall health, quality of life
and wellbeing of all individuals. This report will draw evidences from scholarly articles in the
form of a literature review, followed by recommendations to manage oral hygiene in
dementia affected patients in an aged care.
Literature review
The primary aim of the literature review was to draw evidences from scholarly paper
that contained substantive findings and theoretical contributions to the concept of oral health
maintenance in dementia patients. The research question for the review was as follows:
What is the relationship between oral health and poor outcome in dementia patients?
The search strategy was developed by the identification of essential key words and
terms that matched the research question. Each component of the research question was