Oral health can dramatically affected the quality of a
person’s life, affecting such things as chewing, swallowing,
speaking, facial aesthetics, and social interation.
13
MMSE
at the 24th month in patients receiving oral care was significantly
different from that in patients not receiving oral
care, but we did not observe an overall improvement in
ADL and MMSE scores due to oral care. We administered
the MMSE to patients who were alive for 2 years irrespective
of pneumonia. Thus, patients suffering from pneumonia
might have ADL and MMSE degradation. Age-matched
baseline MMSE was also not significantly different between dentate and edentate patients. To be eligible for inclusion in
the pharmacological trial, dementia patients were required
to have a MMSE score between 10 and 26 and either be
fully ambulatory or able to walk with an assisting device.14
MMSE score was approximately 13 in the present group,
which may not be sufficient to draw conclusions about oral
care. Therefore, ADL and MMSE scores of more-active patients
may improve with oral care, or a longer-term period
of care may be needed to improve them.