Dietary Counseling: An Option to Malnutrition and Masticatory Deficiency in Patients with Total Protheses? A Scoping Review.

UNLABELLED

Given the rising global population of older adults and their association with edentulism and the use of complete removable prostheses [CRP], it is imperative to pursue solutions for issues such as the relationship between poor diets and masticatory deficiency.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the research on the efficacy of dietary counseling in enhancing mastication and nutrition in older adults with CRP.

METHODS

A systematic literature review was performed in the PubMed, Trip, and Web of Science databases.

RESULTS

812 results were retrieved from the databases, from which 6 clinical studies that fulfilled the qualifying criteria were selected. The selected studies reported reduced nutrition in patients with CRP due to impaired masticatory function. Research suggests that employing basic dietary guidelines or simplified nutritional recommendations enhances the masticatory function of patients with CRP, thereby ensuring sufficient nutritional intake.

CONCLUSION

Dietary counseling improves nutritional intake and masticatory function in patients with CRP. This would allow simple dietary advice to be given to patients with total prostheses in clinical practice. Further randomized clinical trials are recommended to increase the available evidence.