Coping strategies of caregivers in performing oral hygiene care in adults with special needs: A qualitative study

Introduction: Basic and daily oral hygiene care is essential for maintaining oral health in adults with special needs. The caregivers act in this process and need to he understood about the difficulties and the resources they use to deal with this demand. The aim of this qualitative study was to understand the difficulties and strategies of caregivers regarding oral hygiene for adults with special health care needs (SHCN) Methods: Twenty-one caregivers of adults with SHCN participated in an interview in which the following questions were asked: What are the greatest difficulties in performing oral hygiene for the adult with SHCN you take care? and "How do you overcome these difficulties?" The interviews were recorded and the qualitative data were analyzed using the Discourse of the Collective Subject technique Results: All respondents were female with a mean age of 58.5 years (+/- 10.8) and the adults with SHCN presented mean age of 30 years (+/- 18). The greatest difficulty pointed out by caregivers regarding oral hygiene for adults with SHCN was their non-cooperation to do such activity. Regarding coping strategies, caregivers pointed out several strategies to perform oral hygiene in adults with SHCN, such as supervising their brushing, seek for a qualified dentist to assist with this task, performing oral hygiene during the bath, performing physical restraint, among others Conclusion: The caregivers' perspectives indicate feelings of failure, discomfort, but. also the use of creative resources to deal with the task. The results bring up themes that refer to anxieties and are related to technical and dental issues, that could be explored and need to be recognized by the reference oral healthcare team, whose responsibility it is also to work for the empowerment of caregivers.