title: [Oral hygiene with tongue cleaners].
abstract: The investigation presented here is part of a series of studies on oral hygiene that deal with a very common problem occurring in everyday practice. Two different methods of mouth cleaning were tested in a comparative study on 150 subjects. At least in German-speaking countries, our methodology was groundbreaking in that measuring tools for evaluation of the oral hygiene measures implemented had not been available thus far. The results of this study clearly showed that the typical method of oral hygiene (gauze wrapped around a wooden spatula and toothbrush) produces much poorer cleaning results than the method using tongue cleaners. Surprisingly, we also observed that the eating habits of the participants "treated" with tongue cleaners improved markedly. Thus, we were able to conclusively demonstrate a connection between oral hygiene and nutritional deficiency.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Pflegehilfsmittelforschung, Göttingen. dipfb@t-online.de
authors.forename: Klaus-Dieter
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Neander
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001458:Bandages; D005260:Female; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D009735:Nursing Homes; D009910:Oral Hygiene / Q000451:nursing*; D014059:Tongue; D014099:Toothbrushing / Q000295:instrumentation; D016896:Treatment Outcome