Improvement in oral hygiene among bedridden patients following domiciliary dental care: A retrospective study

Domiciliary dental care (DDC) offers dental services in the comfort of a patient's home, typically for bed-bound patients. Poor oral hygiene in this group has been associated with pneumonia. Although DDC reduces the risk of pneumonia, its impact on oral hygiene has not been explored yet. Therefore, this retrospective study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of DDC in improving oral health in bedridden patients.

We retrospectively reviewed individuals who received dental services and evaluated their oral hygiene status using the plaque index (PI). Demographic data (age, sex, cause of bedridden state) and oral findings (DMFT, number of residual roots, and remaining teeth) were also analyzed.

In this study, a total of 61 patients were evaluated. Their mean PI improved significantly from 2.02 to 1.73 after receiving DDC. When subjects were stratified according to their baseline median PI (2.1), the high baseline PI group exhibited a greater improvement in PI, reaching levels comparable to those of the low baseline group. Multiple regression analysis identified that a higher baseline PI and a younger age (<43 years) predicted a greater improvement in PI, explaining 34.37 % of the variance. Distribution analysis revealed a higher likelihood of lower PI after intervention, with the low-to-high PI ratio improving from 1:1 to 23:4.

Overall, these findings demonstrated that patients significantly improved their PI and oral hygiene after DDC interventions. We anticipate that more dental schools, clinics, and hospitals will soon adopt DDC, increasing accessibility to dental care for bedridden patients.