The Impact of Comprehensive Oral Care on the Eating Function in Long-term Care Facilities Residents

Oral care is a common way of caring for long-term care facility residents, particularly for those with swallowing difficulties, as oral health is closely related to eating function. Oral care includes general oral hygiene and comprehensive oral care (including cleaning, facial massage, oral muscle massage and stretching, and oral moisturizing). Regular oral care can reduce oral diseases, improve oral mucosa, increase appetite, and improve eating function. However, it is still unclear whether comprehensive oral care can improve eating function and aid in removing nasogastric tubes. Therefore, this study plans to recruit residents with dysphagia from multiple long-term care facilities nationwide to investigate the impact of comprehensive oral care on nasogastric tube removal. The study will collect basic information, disease diagnosis, and onset time and use random grouping to investigate the effects of general oral hygiene and oral care on nasogastric tube removal. The results of this study can provide guidance for clinical practitioners and researchers on oral care and eating function improvement for long-term care facility residents.