Types and effects of oral exercise on oral function in the elderly: A scoping review of interventional studies

Aim: Currently, there have been several literature reviews on oral exercise with elderly samples, but there have been no reviews on oral exercises based on the types and effects of oral exercise improving oral function. Therefore, it is necessary to map the possibilities of prominent oral exercises which most effectively affecting the oral functions from previous studies by scoping review. This scoping review aimed to map available evidence on the types and effects of oral exercise in improving oral function among the elderly population. Methods and Materials: The research on types and effects of oral exercise among the elderly was comprehensively searched through the Cochrane, Embase, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. This scoping review was reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines for scoping reviews. The inclusion criteria of this review were articles published in 2008–2021, with elderly subjects more than ≥60 years, articles describing types and effects of oral exercise, original articles, research articles or research papers, and articles with interventional studies, including randomized control trials and quasi-experimental study type. Results: The types of oral exercises were tongue exercise, masticatory muscle exercise, swallowing exercise, salivary gland massage, verbal, facial muscle exercise, lip stretching, cheek stretching, facial muscle exercise, and neck stretching. Meanwhile, the effects of oral exercise which improved oral functions were swallowing ability, masticatory ability, oral diadochokinesis, oral moisture degree, cheek expanding ability, lip–tongue motor function, increased salivary secretion, and decreased subjective oral dryness. Fifteen articles were obtained for this study, and 13 of them showed the effectiveness of tongue exercise in improving oral function. Conclusions: Oral exercises are effective to improve oral function, mostly as a way to increase the swallowing ability in the elderly. In addition, it was also revealed that the most effective type of exercise is tongue exercise.