Continuous Professional Oral Health Care Intervention Improves Severe Aspiration Pneumonia

Table 1

Evaluation results by Oral Health Assessment Tool: category scores at initial day and last day of oral care.

Category	0 = healthy	1 = changes	2 = unhealthy	Category scores (initial day)	Category scores (last day)
Lips	Smooth, pink, moist	Dry, chapped, or red at corners	Swelling or lump, white/red/ulcerated patch; bleeding/ulcerated at corners	1	0
Tongue	Normal, moist roughness, pink	Patchy, fissured, red, coated	Patch that is red and/or white, ulcerated, swollen	1	0
Gums and tissues	Pink, moist, smooth, no bleeding	Dry, shiny, rough, red, swollen, one ulcer/sore spot under dentures	Swollen, bleeding, ulcers, white/red patches, generalized redness under dentures	1	0
Saliva	Moist tissues, watery and free flowing saliva	Dry, sticky tissues, little saliva present, resident thinks they have a dry mouth	Tissues parched and red, very little/no saliva present, saliva is thick, resident thinks they have a dry mouth	2	0
Natural teeth; Yes/no	No decayed or broken teeth/roots	1-3 decayed or broken teeth/roots or very worn down teeth	4+ decayed or broken teeth/roots, or very worn down teeth, or less than 4 teeth	2	2
Dentures; Yes/no	No broken areas or teeth, dentures regularly worn, and named	1 broken area/tooth or dentures only worn for 1-2 h daily, or dentures not named, or loose	More than 1 broken area/tooth, denture missing or not worn, loose and needs denture adhesive, or not named	2	2
Oral cleanliness	Clean and no food particles or tartar in mouth or dentures	Food particles/tartar/plaque in 1-2 areas of the mouth or on small area of dentures or halitosis (bad breath)	Food particles/tartar/plaque in most areas of the mouth or on most of the dentures or severe halitosis (bad breath)	2	0
Dental pain	No behavioural, verbal, or physical signs of dental pain	Verbal and/or behavioural signs of pain such as pulling at face, chewing lips, not eating, aggression	Physical pain signs (swelling of cheek or gum, broken teeth, ulcers), as well as verbal and/or behavioural signs (pulling at face, not eating, aggression)	2	0
Total score (maximum: 16)	—	—	—	13	4