ELEANOR HALL: An Adelaide survey has provided a damning snapshot into the dental health of nursing home residents. The report by the University of Adelaide shows that people in nursing homes suffer oral diseases at a rate many times higher than older people living in the general community, and bad dental health is problem that can lead to further health complications such as pneumonia, as Nance Haxton reports from Adelaide.

NANCE HAXTON: The random study of nine nursing homes in Adelaide showed disturbing results. After being admitted to a nursing home, residents can expect their dental health to decline rapidly.

Professor John Spencer, from the University of Adelaide's Dental School, says the survey has national significance.

JOHN SPENCER: We found that those people in nursing homes developed new dental decay at around two-and-a-half times the level of their similar aged older adults living in the community. The gum disease was certainly sufficiently severe that some teeth were being lost because they were simply mobile through gum disease.

NANCE HAXTON: It also found that oral diseases rapidly progress during their stay in residential care, leading not only to teeth falling out, but a higher risk of developing pneumonia.

Professor Spencer says while behavioural problems make it difficult for nurses to ensure oral hygiene, the food being fed to nursing home residents is also partly to blame.

JOHN SPENCER: Those people that were developing the most new dental decay had the most restricted range of foods in their diet and seemed to also be the, among those that had the greatest weight loss across the one year that we followed these residents in the nursing homes.

There's been a lot of international attention to the issue of oral health and its links to nutritional status and these data certainly also supported that possibility.

NANCE HAXTON: Professor Spencer says part of the key to improving this state of affairs is better monitoring and attacking the perception that dental health should be less of a priority.

The head of Aged and Community Services for South Australia and the Northern Territory, Robert Dempsey, says while the results are damning, the solutions are well known, but not adequately resourced.

ROBERT DEMPSEY: It is very, very difficult to make appointments for people in residential aged care facilities with dentists and in fact to get them to dentists. It is also very disruptive to them and their lifestyle, particularly if they're incapacitated.

But conversely, it's also very difficult to get dentists to attend residential aged care facilities to administer clinical oral health as well.

NANCE HAXTON: So what really needs to be done is to somehow better facilitate taking dentists into aged care facilities?

ROBERT DEMPSEY: Absolutely. I think, you know, if it is possible, well, it's certainly far better for the residents to be able to have care attended to in their residential aged care facility. It's clinically better and also less disruptive, not only on the residents, but also on the staff, who would have to escort residents to dentists or dental clinics as well.

But the other issue associated with that of course is the availability of dentists to be able to work on roster to provide that service.

ELEANOR HALL: Robert Dempsey is the Chief Executive of Aged and Community Services in South Australia and he was speaking to Nance Haxton.

ABC - The World Today: Nance Haxton