Establishment of new oral functional training applied to tongue rotation exercise training for elderly in frailty

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K20702
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Social dentistry
• Research Institution: The Nippon Dental University
• Principal Investigator: Arakawa Itsuka 日本歯科大学, 新潟生命歯学部, 助教 (30756961)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: フレイル / 口腔機能 / 舌圧 / 筋肉量 / 口腔機能低下症 / 口腔乾燥

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The subjects (mean age : 72.8±6.6 years) could walk by themselves. We measured their oral function and physical condition (BMI, SMI). Pre-training 58.3 % of subjects had oral function deterioration and 8.3% had a reduction in SMI. Subjects carried out oral training for 4 months. We analyzed the differences before and after training.
Symptoms of oral dryness and a decline in tongue pressure in pre-training were significantly higher than those of post-training (p<.05). As a result of this training, the 58.3% of subjects with oral function deterioration decreased to 41.7%. There was no significant difference in physical condition. It is suggested that early intervention of oral function training could contribute to prevent and improve deterioration of oral function.

Free Research Field

歯科補綴学、高齢者歯科学