Feeding Therapy with Telerehabilitation in Home Dental Care for Children

• Published in: Journal of the Japanese Society for Disability and Oral Health Vol. 42; no. 2; pp. 181 - 188
• Main Authors: GENKAI, Sae, SHIOBARA, Yuichiro, KIKUTANI, Takeshi, TAMURA, Fumiyo, FURUYA, Hiroyasu, NAGASHIMA, Keigo, MACHIDA, Reiko, TAKAHASHI, Noriaki, KODAMA, Miho
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japanese Society for Disability and Oral Health 30.06.2021; 一般社団法人 日本障害者歯科学会
• Subjects: Feeding therapy; Home dental visit for children; Telerehabilitation
• ISSN: 0913-1663; 2188-9708
• DOI: 10.14958/jjsdh.42.181

Purpose：This study was carried out to clarify the points to be considered regarding online feeding guidance at home for children with severe motor and intellectual disabilities.Subjects and Methods：Of the 12-year-old children with severe motor and intellectual disabilities who received feeding guidance in visiting dental care, 21 patients who used online medical care were treated online during the six months from March to August 2020. The data were derived from their medical records and included age, underlying disease, form of treatment, treatment time, swallowing function, and eating guidance contents. Furthermore, any problems in the online treatment were reported by the attending physicians. Additionally, for 20 persons, except for one with communication failure, the relation between online problems and four items were examined：i.e., the period until the start of online treatment, presence or absence of any other person with different occupations, ventilator use, and oral intake. A statistically significant difference in data was determined by the chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test using IBM SPSS Statistics.Results：Many of the patients who received home visit feeding guidance and wished to receive online treatment were children with severe conditions using ventilators and transtracheal nutrition. These patients also suffered from severe dysphagia and faced difficulties in acquiring salivary swallowing and starting direct feeding training. The content of the feeding guidance mainly consisted of indirect training and taste stimulation. The online treatment time was shorter than the face-to-face treatment. Furthermore, no correlation was reported by the attending physicians between online problems and any of the four items：the period until the start of online treatment, presence or absence of any other person with different occupations, ventilator use, and oral intake.Conclusion：In the combined use of online medical care and home dental care, it was inferred that the use of medical devices, the presence or absence of a person with different occupations, and the timing being close to the initial diagnosis did not interfere with the medical care.