Development of patient-centric eating advice for complete denture wearers

BACKGROUND

Edentulous people eat less healthily, and wearing dentures impairs eating function and enjoyment.

OBJECTIVE

To apply a sequential approach to integrate scientific evidence, and patient and professional experience to co-develop intervention to support better eating with dentures.

METHODS

Focus groups, two with purposive samples of patients and two with dental professionals, explored experiences and opinions about advice on eating with complete dentures. Findings were distilled with evidence from the literature to underpinned concepts for eating interventions. User engagement informed prioritisation of ideas and led to the development of a leaflet on eating with dentures.

RESULTS

Patients receive no advice on what they can realistically expect when eating with dentures, and professionals lacked confidence to provide eating advice. Patients did not think dentists a credible provider of eating advice, feeling peer support more appropriate and offering numerous strategies for eating with dentures. Concepts for eating intervention included a patient leaflet, Web-based eating interventions, patient support blogs, waiting room videos and improved nutrition training for dental professionals. User feedback informed prioritisation of ideas, leading to the development of a leaflet on eating with dentures. Justified by the data, the leaflet focused on patient-generated tips for overcoming the functional limitations of eating with dentures, and unobtrusive healthier eating advice. Face validity with users confirmed acceptability.

CONCLUSION

A systematic and rigorous integration of scientific evidence, expert experience and patient input has developed a patient-centric, evidence-based approach to a patent leaflet on eating with dentures that, based on initial face validity, is likely to be well received.

Eating Advice for People Who Wear Dentures: A Scoping Review

OBJECTIVE

A scoping review of available advice to address eating problems experienced by people who wear dentures was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA statement. The objective was to identify and map type, volume, and content of the available eating advice.

METHODS

Medline, CINAHL, and grey literature databases and Google were searched. Relevant content pertaining to study type, peer-review vs. grey literature, country of origin, advice content, and methods to evaluate effectiveness was mapped.

RESULTS

Of the 4591 records identified from peer-reviewed literature, 56 full papers underwent duplicate screening, resulting in 26 papers (from Germany (n = 1), Europe (n = 1), India (n = 2), Japan (n = 7), UK (n = 6), USA (n = 6), or other (n = 3)) being included in the review. These yielded 18 different items of relevant eating advice. Of the 258 screened websites, 63 were included, yielding 30 different items of eating advice. The most-cited advice was to eat soft food and avoid hard and sticky food, cut food into bite-sized pieces, and chew on both sides of the mouth and chew slowly and thoroughly. The identified advice was not supported by reference to peer-reviewed evidence. Advice included some conflicting messages and some advice was non-compliant with authoritative nutritional advice (e.g., avoid red meat, take a vitamin supplement).

CONCLUSION

There is support for providing eating advice at the time of denture provision. A broad range of advice based on clinical experience to support people who wear dentures to overcome the functional limitations exists. However, the efficacy of this advice in improving diet and eating experience has not been tested.

Then and Now-A Look Inside the Lives of 11 Women Presidents of the IADR

Extraordinary women scientists-past, current, and elected presidents of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR)-showcase pathways for success and leadership. In this series of autobiographical essays, these women of various cultural backgrounds with diverse areas of research describe their journeys in the passionate pursuit of excellence, despite the frequent obstacles and challenges. Through interviews and in their own words, we recap highlights of their dental research journeys and inspirations, their career trajectories toward the IADR presidency, and the benefits and challenges that they faced in their careers and personal lives. The purpose of this special issue is to honor these women, their life journeys, and how they have contributed to oral health research.