Table 1.

Clinical Oral Assessment Chart.Recreated with reference to the original COACH chart [8]

Clinical Oral Assessment Chart
Item		○:No problem	△:Cautious	×:Problematic
		Participants continue current care	Caregivers consider asking a specialist for assessment when no improvement is seen	Participants need treatment or intervention by a specialist
Mouth opening		Participants easily open mouth for care	• Participants refuse to open mouth • Caregivers can open mouth manually with 2 fingerbreadths	Caregivers open mouth with < 1 fingerbreadth because of tooth clenching and contracture of temporomandibular joint
Bad breath		None	Caregivers sense bad breath when approaching the oral cavity	Caregivers sense a smell of bad breath in a room
Drooling		None	Decline in swallowing reflex is suspected but no drooling	Drooling (because of decline in swallowing reflex)
Dryness of mouth and saliva		▪ No friction in mucosa on palpation with gloved fingers ▪ Mucosa has saliva	▪ Slightly increased friction, no tendency for the gloved fingers to adhere to the mucosa ▪ Mucosa has little saliva and is sticky	▪ Significantly increased friction, gloved fingers adhering to the mucosa ▪ Mucosa has little saliva and is dry
Teeth and dentures		▪ Clean and no plaque and debris ▪ No mobile teeth	▪ Small amount of plaque and debris ▪ Several mobile teeth but no hindrance to care	▪ Large amount of plaque and debris ▪ Some wobbly teeth
	Oral mucosa	▪ Pink and moist ▪ No dirtiness	Dry and color change such as reddening	• Spontaneous bleeding, ulcer, and candida infection are observed • Airway secretion, desquamated epithelium, and clotting blood are apparent and tightly attached to the mucosa
	Tongue	▪ Moderate filiform papillae present	Extension and loss of filiform papillae (coated tongue and bald tongue, respectively)
	Lips	▪ Smooth (no cracking)	Cracked and angular cheilitis
	Gingiva	▪ Tightened (stippling)	Gingiva is swollen and bleeds while brushing