The Effect of Oral Hygiene Practices on Oral Health in Elderly Patients Undergoing Facial and Oral Surgery
Keywords:
Elderly, Facial and Oral Surgery, Oral Health, Oral Hygiene PracticesAbstract
Elderly patients undergoing maxillofacial surgery are at a high risk for plaque accumulation and oral complications. This quasi-experimental two-group pretest-posttest design study aimed to investigate the effect of oral hygiene practices on oral health in elderly patients undergoing facial and oral surgery. The sample consisted of 70 elderly patients undergoing facial and oral surgery treated at the urological and cosmetic surgery ward. Subjects were selected via purposive sampling and assigned to either the control or experimental group (35 patients per group). Data collection was conducted from October 1 to December 31, 2025. Research tools included oral health care records, the Oral Assessment Guide (OAG), oral health care guidelines, and an oral health care manual. The content validity of the intervention tools was verified by experts (IOC = 0.67 - 1.00). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and the Mann-Whitney U test.
The results showed that after the intervention, the experimental group using the oral hygiene guidelines had significantly different scores from the control group (p < .05), with a mean score of 8.57 (S.D. = 1.59) compared to 13.34 (S.D. = 3.14) in the control group. And the experimental group using the oral hygiene guidelines had significantly different scores between post-intervention and pre-intervention (p < .05), with the mean score decreasing from 15.89 (S.D. = 1.13) to 8.57 (S.D. = 1.59). In conclusion, implementing oral hygiene practices effectively promotes and improves oral health outcomes in elderly patients. Recommendation: These oral hygiene practices should be applied to improve oral health outcomes in clinical patients.
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