Patient Compliance With Oral Health Care Advice: A Prospective Study of Older People With Memory Complaints

Oral health is important for preserving oral function, general health, and overall well-being. However, obtaining and maintaining oral health is challenging for cases with memory complaints.

To assess compliance of older people with memory complaints and oral health problems with given oral health care advice.

Consecutive patients visiting the memory clinic of the University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands, between May 2022 and October 2024 for the first time were asked whether they were willing to participate in a prospective study aimed at assessing the oral health and compliance with oral care advice.

not understanding Dutch, unable to follow instructions, or being incapacitated. After assessing the oral health and providing oral care advice, the compliance with the oral care advice was assessed after 6 weeks. If the given advice was not followed, another check was done 6 weeks later.

All 124 included patients needed oral health care advice. After 6 weeks, 114 of the patients (91.9%) had not followed the oral health care advice. At the recall 6 weeks later, 108/124 patients (87.1%) had still not followed the given advice.

The compliance with oral care advice among older people with memory complaints and who need oral care is very low (12.9%).