Oral health status of hospitalized amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients: a single-centre observational study

Abstract

Objective: To assess the intraoral conditions and oral function of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Material and methods: This single-centre, cross-sectional observational study included 50 ALS patients, who were treated with tracheostomy positive-pressure ventilation (TPPV) while hospitalized. The disease duration, TPPV duration, current number of teeth, number of occlusal units, number of decayed/missing/filled teeth, community periodontal index, bleeding on probing, dental calculus, maximum mouth opening, salivation rate, tongue anomalies (atrophy or hypertrophy) and tongue coating were determined for each patient. Differences in intraoral conditions according to disease duration or TPPV duration were statistically analysed.

Results: The maximum mouth opening was low in the included patients, with a mean distance of 13.7 ± 7.4 mm. Furthermore, the maximum mouth opening showed a significant negative correlation with both disease duration and TPPV duration. No statistically significant differences were found between any other intraoral parameters and disease duration or TPPV duration.

Conclusions: Severe dental disease is uncommon among hospitalized ALS patients who receive oral care by nurses; however, mouth opening is very restricted in these patients. Early intervention for restricted mouth opening, directed by a dentist or dental hygienist, is essential in this population.

Keywords:

• Community periodontal index
• maximum mouth opening
• oral health
• salivation rate
• tracheostomy positive-pressure ventilation

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Takaya Numayama (director, Sayama Neurology Hospital), Dr. Masato Taira (Tokyo Medical and Dental University) and the research staff for their invaluable contributions to this work. In addition, we thank the patients who participated in this study. We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.jp) for English language editing.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS KAKENHI grant number JP.25463459).