Oral function of older people with mild cognitive impairment or dementia

Summary Objectives The aim of this study was to examine and compare the oral function of older people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia. Methods This cross‐sectional observational study included participants with MCI or dementia aged 60 years or older. Global cognitive functioning was evaluated with the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the oral function was evaluated with subjective and objective assessments, including the perceived quality of chewing and swallowing, the function of the prostheses, the number of occluding pairs (OP), the degree of tooth wear and the active and passive maximum mouth opening. Results The quality of chewing and swallowing was perceived as good in, respectively, 86.0% and 90.9% of the participants. Full or partial prostheses were worn by 63.8% of the participants, and the retention was good in 58.4% of the upper and 50.0% of the lower prostheses. Participants with MCI had a median of 3.0 (Inter Quartile Range [IQR] 0.0‐7.5) occluding pairs, while participants with dementia had a median of 0.0 (IQR 0.0‐1.0) occluding pairs, U = 3838.50, P