Oral health conditions, behavior and swallowing in patients with Parkinson’s disease

Background: The symptoms of Parkinsonʼs disease (PD) can lead to problems in maintaining oral health and an inability to swallow which can then negatively affect the patientʼs quality of life. The purpose of the present study was to investigate oral health conditions, oral health behavior and swallowing among patients with PD in Japan. Methods: We investigated 200 Parkinsonism patients in the east Iburi area of Hokkaido, Japan by mail. From 108 respondents, we used 100 PD patients over 60 years of age as cases. Dental examinations for Parkinsonism patients were not conducted. One thousand and thirty-four persons over 20 years of age underwent dental examinations conducted by the municipalities in the Tokachi area of Hokkaido. We selected 708 persons over 60 years of age as control. A structured questionnaire was employed for both cases and controls. We compared oral health conditions and related factors between 100 PD patients and 708 controls. The logistic regression model was used for adjusting for sex and age. We also conducted stratified analysis by sex while adjusting for age using this model. Results: (1) Compared with the controls, PD patients had more complaints of chewing difficulties, toothache, gingival bleeding, bad breath, sliminess of the mouth, annoying teeth alignment, food impaction, swollen gums or mucosa and denture discomfort. (2) Fewer PD patients had their own teeth regardless of sex. (3) More PD patients used a fluoride toothpaste than controls, regardless of sex. (4) PD patients performed daily tooth-brushing or denture cleaning more frequently than the controls. (5) Among PD patients, 55.6% had problems with swallowing. Conclusion: We found that PD patients had more complaints about oral health and troubles with swallowing. It would be important for public health center to conduct dental checkups and professional oral care through home visits for PD patients. keywords: Oral health, Parkinson disease, Parkinsonism, Dysphagia (accepted for publication, 23th March 2016) Corresponding author: Yoshimi NAKAYAMA 6-19-1-1 Nagayama Asahikawa-shi, Hokkaido 079-8610, Japan