Today, there is a large gap between the fields of medicine and dentistry, underlining the need to focus on oral health as an important element of general health to provide the best possible treatment and quality of life for the patient.
Two projects will cover this in various ways, the first with Torgeir Bruun Wyller as the PI:
The COOP-II-Study. Cooperation for better treatment of polypharmacy in the community
Oral health issues, e.g. dry mouth, tooth decay, mucosal infections, and oral pain, all increase with increasing age. They often impact heavily on older persons’ nutritional state and quality of life, and are associated with increased mortality in older people. The prevalence and incidence of xerostomia increases rapidly with increasing age and drug use.
The relationship between polypharmacy, drug optimization and oral health is, sparsely described, presumably because oral care is managed by and is differently organized than the care of other health issues. The study will take part in a municipal acute hospital (“Kommunal Akutt Døgnenhet” – KAD). The municipality of Oslo has one KAD unit with 72 beds. Approximately 5,000 patients are admitted to this unit annually, whereof approximately 3,500 are aged 70+.
Primary objective: To gain clinically useful knowledge on correlates and management of polypharmacy among patients admitted to KAD units.
Secondary objectives:
1) To provide valid information on the prevalence and profile of potentially inappropriate medication among patients aged 70+ admitted to KAD, and on the relationship between medication, nutritional status, cognition, oral health indicators and socioeconomic variables
2) To test the hypothesis that a model of cooperative medication review by KAD physician (supervised by geriatrician) can improve patient quality of life, mobility, cognition, and oral health.
The study is funded by Helse Sørøst: Skal vurdere medisinbruk blant eldre - Det odontologiske fakultet (uio.no)
Medisiner til skade og nytte - Oslo universitetssykehus (oslo-universitetssykehus.no)
The second project is directed at increasing the understanding of oral health among health personnel without a background in dentistry and is led by Janicke Liaaen Jensen:
New version of a digital dental chart
Today, many patients with complex dental restorations, including dental implants with removable or fixed prostheses, enter hospitals and nursing homes. Nurses and physicians have no information as to the dental status of the patient since there is no electronic or other communication between most dental and medical institutions.
In addition, persons without oral health education may have difficulties in understanding dental journals. There is therefore an unmet need to convey this kind of information so that non-dental personnel can comprehend the oral and dental status of the patient, in order to evaluate urgent oral treatment needs and provide necessary oral hygiene measures.
This study is partly funded by Veksthuset 2,1 millioner kroner fra Veksthuset til innovative forskere og studenter ved UiO - Veksthuset for livsvitenskap and by the University of Oslo Støtte til nyskapende forskere - Universitetet i Oslo (uio.no)