Dental screening instruments for institutionalized old people: a literature review.

Dental screening instruments for institutionalized old people: a scope review

Abstract

Introduction: Population aging in Brazil and in the world is a reality and the institutionalization of the olds is still a common practice, although debatable. The oral health condition of institutionalized elderly people is precarious for many reasons, with many treatment needs and difficulty in accessing dental treatment. A great demand for treatment and reduced service capacity justifies the use of dental screening tools to prioritize care and classify old people by risk scale. Objective: This study aims to review the literature in order to identify the different dental screening tools used to organize and prioritize dental care for institutionalized elderly people. Methodology: After defining the research theme, the descriptors in the DeCS/MeSH databases were selected for the literature search. Studies published in the last 20 years and that presented instruments for dental screening in institutionalized elderly were included in the research. Articles that presented only dental assessment instruments without screening and literature reviews were excluded. Results: After removing duplicates, and titles, abstracts and full texts reading, 10 articles remained. The articles analyzed were published between 2005 and 2023 and come from 9 countries. The 10 analyzed articles presented a total of 8 screening instruments for use in institutionalized elderly, with the Oral Health Assessment Tool (OHAT), present in 6 of the 10 articles. Conclusion: After analyzing the literature, it can be seen that the OHAT is the most appropriate instrument for dental screening of institutionalized elderly, mainly because it does not depend on the cognitive function and cooperation of the patient, it is simple and applicable by caregivers or other health professionals.