title: Incorporating the nutrition screening initiative into the dental practice.
abstract: Older patients' nutritional status must be assessed for their morbidity and mortality to be decreased and their quality of life improved. Food and fluid intake is markedly influenced by oral health status. In turn, oral health has an interrelationship with general health. Because nutritional status and oral health exist in a symbiotic relationship, it is essential that the dental team identify older patients who are nutritionally at risk. Screening for nutritional problems in elderly dental patients is made easier with screening instruments developed by the Nutrition Screening Initiative (NSI). The NSI developed criteria to determine risk factors for poor nutritional status in older Americans. The DETERMINE Your Nutritional Health checklist, a 10-item screening instrument, followed by the Levels I and II Nutrition Screens, can be used in the dental office to ascertain which elderly patients are most likely to be in danger of experiencing nutritional problems. The dental team can then perform interventions and/or make appropriate referrals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental Diagnostic Science and Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio 78284-7921, USA.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Saunders
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016321:Dental Care for Aged / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009909:Oral Health; D010353:Patient Education as Topic