New oral and dental health care plan for nursing home residents

The Minister for Ageing Justine Elliot has announced the preparation of the first oral and dental health care plan for nursing home residents. Under the plan, a staff member from all 2,830 aged care homes will be trained in dental hygiene by next year (2010). The trained staff member will educate other aged care workers to help maintain the teeth of nursing home residents.

The plan includes a ‘hands on’ training program on daily oral hygiene for aged care workers to help older Australians retain their teeth and reduce illness related to dental health. Australian Dental Association research shows that in 1979, 60% of residents had no natural teeth and by 1989, it had fallen to 44%. Within 10 years, it is expected to drop to 20%.

“In the past, most people in nursing homes had dentures and thousands now have their own teeth,” Mrs Elliot said. “The average age of entry into an aged care home is now 83.2 years and many residents have retained their teeth.”
 

Mrs Elliot said the Nursing Home Oral and Dental Health Plan ,costing $3 million over two years, will include, for the first time: establishing a nationally consistent approach to dental assessments in the ACAT (Aged Care Assessment Team) process. The oral health assessment tool is to be included in the proposed set of assessment tools for ACATs and a specially developed national training package will be provided later this

year. The training package will cover practical advice to help aged care workers, such as:

• Providing standard protective oral hygiene, including proper brushing, preventing gum disease and reducing tooth decay and ulcers;
• Care, removal and cleaning of dentures;
• Responding to dry mouth (Xerostomia) – a side effect of some medications;
• Brushing techniques for residents with challenging behaviour, perhaps as a result of dementia, who may refuse to have their faces touched, bite the toothbrush or are unable to rinse;
• Helpful oral desensitisation techniques to help aged care workers relax the resident to allow brushing such as body language and a process where the aged care worker begins the brushing and helps the resident to finish;

• Dental care for people at the palliative stage.

• Examining the results of the $1.3 million Better Oral Health in Residential Care project currently being trialled in seven aged care homes in
  
  South Australia, NSW and
  
  Victoria through the Encouraging Best Practice in Residential Aged Care (EBPRAC) program. These results would be incorporated into the training programs.

The project covers; oral health assessment; oral health care planning; daily oral hygiene; dental referrals; practical training resources and courses for aged care workers and additional support for those in remote areas through electronic delivery of the package; considering opportunities to include training in nationally accredited training for aged care workers to give them a recognised qualification; and  review of the Aged Care Accreditation Standards as they relate to oral and dental care and the process by which they are assessed – as part of the overall review of the Aged Care Accreditation Standards and Processes.

The dental plan will be complemented by the Aged Care Access Initiative which provides funding for services by allied health professionals to residents in aged care homes. Further consultations will be held with the dental and aged care sector around the plan’s delivery.