Oral Health in Healthcare
A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Nursing".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 20109
Special Issue Editor
2. School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, NSW 2560, Australia
3. Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia
Interests: health service delivery; primary health care; Indigenous health; integrated oral health care; quality care; cultural sensitivity; diabetes; chronic disease
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The importance of needing good oral health and keeping our teeth as we age is well-established and well-known. However, the fact that oral health is intimately related to other parts of our body is less appreciated by the public and, unfortunately, by many non-dental healthcare professionals.
There is evidence that poor oral health can lead to systemic diseases including infections to the rest of the body, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, dementia and rheumatoid arthritis. It is also well-recognised that this relationship is often bi-directional. For instance, people with periodontitis, where the gums pull away from the teeth and supporting gum tissues and bones are irreversibly destroyed, are more likely to develop diabetes and cardiovascular complications. Recent evidence demonstrates that chronic inflammation of the gums adversely affects blood glucose levels which may require pharmacotherapy management and can lead to diabetes-related complications such as glaucoma and neuropathy. At the same time, people with diabetes have a three-to-four times higher prevalence of severe periodontitis, resulting in premature tooth loss, poor nutrition, suboptimal blood glucose levels, more cardiovascular complications and other morbidity risks.
Professional recommendations and guidelines advocate the need for shared management between medical, dental and allied health practitioners to increase the efficiency of care delivery and improve patient outcomes. The benefits of interprofessional care are even more critical for populations that are vulnerable including culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations, people with disabilities and AOD (alcohol and other drugs) addictions. However, the mouth and the rest of the body continue to be managed separately, particularly in the primary healthcare setting.
This Special Issue of Healthcare seeks commentaries, original research, short reports, and reviews on the role of oral health in the bigger picture of healthcare to bring attention to the relationship between oral and systemic health, and the need for collaboration between oral health and other healthcare practitioners to effectively improve the health and well-being of patients. The aim is to inform the development of health policies, strategies and systems to effect the required paradigm change.
Dr. Phyllis Lau
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- oral health
- periodontitis
- diabetes
- cardiovascular disease
- disability
- drug and alcohol use
- interprofessional care
- medical education
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Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Knowledge and Practices of Occupational Therapists on Oral Health: A Systematic Review
Authors: Ming Nam Tse1, Kristy Coxon1, Navira Chandio1,2,3, Ashim Kumar Nandi4, Amit Arora1,2,3,5,6
Affiliation: 1 School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Penrith NSW 2751, Australia
2 Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown NSW 2560, Australia
3 Health Equity Laboratory, Campbelltown, NSW 2560, Australia
4 Department of Sociology, University of Barishal, Barishal-8254, Bangladesh
5 Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Westmead NSW 2145, Australia
6 Oral Health Services, Sydney Local Health District and Sydney Dental Hospital, NSW Health, Surry Hills NSW 2010, Australia.
Abstract: Abstract
Oral health has become a major global public health challenge. The integration of oral health into primary care has the potential to significantly enhance oral health outcomes for populations and reduce oral health inequities. Allied Healthcare professionals such as Occupational Therapists are well-positioned to seamlessly integrate oral health promotion and preventive measures into their routine care practices. While occupational therapists have an important role in addressing several facets of oral health, there is a lack of systematic review of how oral health care is delivered by occupational therapists to improve oral health. This paper presents a protocol for a systematic review which will synthesize the evidence on knowledge and practices of occupational therapists in oral health care, as well as, identify the barriers and facilitators for occupational therapists in addressing oral health The protocol for this systematic review was developed with guidance from the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology for systematic reviews and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) statement. Quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies reporting on knowledge and practices of occupational therapists on oral health care and barriers and facilitators to address oral health will be included. MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), SCOPUS, and EMBASE (Ovid) will be searched for peer-reviewed literature with no restrictions on publication date, type, language, or region to ensure a comprehensive retrieval of potentially relevant studies. Two reviewers will independently screen and select studies, assess the methodological quality and conduct data extraction. This systematic review will elucidate the knowledge and practices of occupational therapists on oral health and ascertain the barriers and facilitators to provide oral health care.
Title: Importance of Psychosocial Impacts of Malocclusion in Determining Orthodontic Treatment Needs in Adolescents: A Literature Review
Authors: Tee Kangutkar; Tan Nguyen; Hanny Calache
Affiliation: La Trobe University Melbourne Victoria 3086 Australia
Deakin University
Abstract: Malocclusion has significant psychosocial impacts on adolescents, with factors like gender, age, bullying severity, and malocclusion type affecting these impacts. Currently used orthodontic treatment needs indices have limitations from patients' perspective. Combining consumers' and clinicians' viewpoints is necessary to address orthodontic treatment needs comprehensively. This systematic review assessed 19 high-quality records, 2 moderate, and 2 low, confirming these findings. The study underscores the importance of adopting a patient-centered approach in orthodontic care, considering both professional opinions and consumers' perspectives for better overall outcomes in adolescent orthodontic treatment.