Table 1.

Clinical Oral Assessment Chart.

Clinical Oral Assessment Chart
Item	◦: No Problem	Δ: 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

The assessments were categorized into qualitative variables: ◦ for “No problems” and Δ or × for “Cautious/Problematic.” according to the Clinical Oral Assessment Chart [15].