Impact of oral physiology of elderly people on their food consumption; what solutions can be found to maintain nutritional status?

2018

Context. In human, oral food intake is the ultimate stage of food supply chain and the beginning of food disintegration and the digestion process. During aging, the oral health changes and sometimes eating food can be a real challenge as food can be hard to masticate, humidify or swallow.Objective. The aim of the present study is to determine which oral factors (salivary, dental, tongue strength) have an impact on physiological – ability to form a food bolus – and psychological – pleasure to eat – dimensions of food oral processing in order to select culinary techniques and help elderlies maintaining an appropriate protein intake in spite of the occurrence of poor oral health.Material and m…