Dental care soldiers : outreach service for the older persons in Cheung Chau

Abstract

Background: The demographic structure of Hong Kong has shown a trend of an aging population in recent years, suggesting a growing demand for health care for the older persons. Yet, according to the Oral Health Survey 2011, the oral health status of the older persons in Hong Kong has room for improvement. Hence, it is paramount to emphasise and investigate further the oral health of the older persons, particularly those who live on remote islands where accessibility to dental care may be limited. Objective: This project aimed to promote the oral health of the older persons in Cheung Chau, to study and describe their oral health status (condition & behaviour), to identify the potential barriers to seeking dental treatment, and to provide oral examinations, oral hygiene instruction, and simple treatments to the older persons in Cheung Chau. Methods: The main components of this outreach service were 1) basic oral examination, 2) oral hygiene instructions, 3) provision of simple preventive treatments, and 4) questionnaires. The oral health status of the participants was collected through oral examinations, and background information was collected through the questionnaire survey. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests (Kruskal Wallis and chi-squared exact test) were performed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: A total of 70 older persons participated in the outreach. Approximately half of the respondents considered their oral conditions as very poor or poor. Clinical results indeed revealed that the mean DMFT value of 16.0, and more than 50% of the participants had 4 as their highest BPE score among the six examined sextants. Yet, almost half of the participants did not receive dental care for over two years. 62.9% of the participants were worried about the high financial costs of dental treatments, and at the same time, 58.6% of them were also concerned about the lack of dentists in Cheung Chau when asked about potential barriers to seeking dental care. In the outreach service, scaling was performed on 53 participants, fluoride varnish was applied on 16, silver diamine fluoride (SDF) was applied on 20, and atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) was performed on 13. Conclusion: Our study provided a brief overview of the oral health status of the older persons living in Cheung Chau, while highlighting some of the barriers that the Cheung Chau older persons may face when seeking dental treatment. Brief oral examinations, oral hygiene instructions, and basic preventive and restorative treatments were also provided to the participants.