JP7367919B2 - Instruments used for oral function training - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an instrument used for oral function training, and particularly to an instrument used for eating and swallowing training.

There is a concern that the number of patients with dementia will increase with the aging of society, and there is an urgent need to develop not only treatments for dementia but also rehabilitation methods (training for maintaining or recovering functions, training for functions). The main symptoms of dementia include cognitive dysfunction, called core symptoms, and psychiatric symptoms and behavioral disorders, called peripheral symptoms.

One of the behavioral disorders is dysphagia, and as dementia progresses, the degree of independence in eating can be seen to decline due to a decline in activity. It has been reported that a decrease in food intake due to a decrease in eating independence leads to malnutrition and dehydration, leading to further decline in cognitive function. Furthermore, patients with severe dementia are at increased risk of eating disorders such as aspiration, which increases the risk of developing pneumonia.

Countermeasures for such eating and swallowing disorders include eating and swallowing guidance and eating and swallowing training.
Eating and swallowing guidance generally includes setting up the eating environment and adjusting eating utensils and food forms.
On the other hand, eating and swallowing training includes direct training that involves actually practicing eating safely, and basic training that aims to maintain and recover eating and swallowing functions.
Among these, basic training is often performed by applying exercise loads to the jaw, oral cavity, and neck, and is considered important in terms of preventing functional decline, and various methods are applied in clinical practice.

However, most of these feeding and swallowing trainings require the person's understanding of the instructions, and are often difficult to implement in cases such as elderly people with declining cognitive function. Therefore, there is a need for eating and swallowing training that can be implemented even for elderly people with dementia.

For this reason, a simpler training method is required, one of which is to have the dog repeatedly lick candy. This aims to maintain, improve, and improve the oral function of elderly people with dementia by having them lick a lollipop over a certain period of time every day or once every few days. Although there are individual differences, it is known that it is effective to some extent.
However, when simply using a stick with a candy attached to the end, patients with advanced dementia may not be able to hold onto the candy and risk dropping it.

In order to solve such problems, there is a device as disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example. This has a structure in which candy is placed inside a net-like member placed at one end of the stick, and a handle is provided at the other end.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-42193

However, the structure of the conventional device as described in Patent Document 1 was very complicated. There was also a request for the device to be configured so that it could be held more stably in the hand, from the perspective of allowing patients to work independently as much as possible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an instrument used for oral function training that has a simpler structure and is easier for patients to hold.

One embodiment is an instrument used for oral function training, which includes a main body having an annular shape, a first hole communicating between the inside and outside of the main body, and a first hole provided in the main body facing the first hole. and a second hole provided therein.

The second hole may be configured not to penetrate the main body.

The main body may be made of a flexible elastic member.

A protrusion may be provided on the main body to extend the first hole.

Another aspect includes the above-mentioned annular device and a rod-like device held by the annular device, the rod-like device including a rod-shaped support rod and a rod-like device disposed at one end of the support rod. a member to be included, a support rod passing through the first hole, the other end of the support rod being inserted into the second hole, and a member to be included in the patient's oral cavity located on the annular outer side of the main body. This is an oral functional rehabilitation device placed in the

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an instrument for training oral function that has a simpler structure and is easier for a patient to hold.

FIG. 1 is a front view of the oral function rehabilitation device 10. FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the oral function rehabilitation device 10. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the annular tool 21. As shown in FIG.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are diagrams for explaining one form, and are diagrams showing an oral function rehabilitation device 10. FIG. FIG. 1 is a front view of the oral function rehabilitation device 10, and FIG. 2 is an exploded front view of the oral function rehabilitation device 10.
The oral function rehabilitation device 10 of this embodiment includes an annular tool 11 and a rod-shaped tool 15.

The annular tool 11 is one of the tools used for oral function training, and functions as a handle by holding the rod-shaped tool 15. The annular tool 11 has an annular main body 12, a first hole 13, and a second hole 14.

The main body 12 is annular, and in this embodiment is a circular ring. However, the shape of the ring is not particularly limited, and may be a square, a triangle, or any other shape.
The size of the main body 12 when viewed from the front (viewpoint in FIGS. 1 and 2) is not particularly limited, but it is The size in the orthogonal direction (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the width direction) may be larger than the width direction size (the size indicated by a in FIG. 2) of the intraorally contained material 17 described later. preferable. More preferably, it is greater than 40 mm and less than 150 mm. This makes it difficult for the main body 12 to enter the patient's oral cavity, making it difficult to cause aspiration. In addition, this makes it possible to secure a certain size, making it easier for the patient to grasp, making it more advantageous as a handle, and making it difficult to drop.
On the other hand, the size in the direction in which the first hole 13 and the second hole 14 are lined up (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the vertical direction), which is indicated by B in FIG. 2, is the same as in the width direction. It is preferable that the vertical dimension is larger than that of the vertical direction. More preferably, it is greater than 40 mm and less than 150 mm.

Further, the cross-sectional shape of the annular wire constituting the main body 12 (the cross-sectional shape perpendicular to the direction in which the wire extends) may be set as appropriate, such as a circle, square, triangle, star shape, irregular shape, or other geometric shape. be able to.
The width of the wire of the main body 12, indicated by C in FIG. 2, is preferably larger than the widthwise dimension of the support rod 16 of the rod-shaped tool 15 (the dimension indicated by b in FIG. 2). More preferably, it is greater than 3 mm and less than 30 mm. Therefore, when the cross section of the wire of the main body 12 is circular, the diameter is preferably greater than 3 mm and less than 30 mm.
If this width C is smaller than the width b of the support rod 16, the patient tends to easily drop the oral function rehabilitation device 10. On the other hand, if the width C is too large relative to the width b of the support rod 16, for example, greater than 30 mm, the function of the annular tool 11 as a handle will deteriorate and it will tend to become difficult to grip.

Although the material of the main body 12 is not particularly limited, it is preferably formed of a flexible elastic member. According to this, since it is easy to deform, it can be deformed into a shape that fits the patient's hand to provide a good fit, and it is possible to improve the ease of holding and grasping. Furthermore, by being made of such an elastic material, when the support rod 16 is inserted into the first hole 13 and the second hole 14, which will be described later, the support rod 16 can be arranged so as to be tightened. The support rod 16 can be stably held on the annular tool 12.
Specific materials for this purpose include silicone rubber, elastomer, and the like.

The first hole 13 and the second hole 14 are holes provided in the main body 12, into which the support rod 16 of the rod-shaped tool 15 is inserted to hold the rod-shaped tool 15 on the annular tool 11.
It is preferable that the first hole 13 and the second hole 14 are arranged at opposing positions in the main body 12. Thereby, the support rod 16 can be smoothly inserted and arranged in the first hole 13 and the second hole 14.
In this embodiment, the first hole 13 is a through hole, and is provided so as to pass through the outer side of the ring and the inner side of the ring of the annular main body 12.
On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the second hole 14 is a hole having a bottom that does not penetrate, and is open on the inside of the annular main body 12 and does not penetrate to the outside of the annular main body 12. As a result, the end of the support rod 16 can be supported at the bottom of the second hole 14, and the rod-shaped tool 15 can be more stably held on the annular tool 11. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the second hole 14 may also be a through hole.

In this way, by inserting the support rod 16 into the first hole 13 and the second hole 14 and holding the rod-shaped tool 15 in the annular tool 11, it is possible to attach and detach the rod-shaped tool 15 to and from the annular tool 11. becomes. This allows the rod-shaped tool 15 to be replaced with the annular tool 11, which is advantageous from a cost perspective.
Therefore, the opening areas of the first hole 13 and the second hole 14 are preferably made slightly smaller than the cross-sectional area of the cross section (cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal direction) of the support rod 16. Thereby, when the support rod 16 is inserted into the first hole 13 and the second hole 14, the first hole 13 and the second hole 14 can tighten and stably hold the support rod 16. In addition, projections or cuts may be made on the inner surfaces of the first hole 13 and the second hole 14 to make it easier to insert or to make it difficult to remove.

FIG. 3 shows an annular tool 21 according to a modified example. In addition to the annular tool 11 described above, the annular tool 21 is provided with a protrusion 22 on the outer peripheral side of the main body 12 so as to extend the first hole 13.
According to this, since the first hole 13 can be extended, the holding force of the support rod 16 can be further increased. Furthermore, when the patient puts the intraorally contained material 17 in the patient's mouth, the patient can pinch the protrusion 22 between the lips, thereby increasing the stability when the patient holds the intraorally contained material 17 in the patient's mouth. I can do it.
Although the shape of the protrusion 22 is not particularly limited, it is preferable that the protrusion 22 has a conical shape with the top removed, considering the comfort when the patient puts the intraorally contained material 17 in the mouth.

The rod-shaped device 15 is a device equipped with a member such as a candy to be contained in the patient's oral cavity, and has a support rod 16 and an intraorally contained material 17.

The support rod 16 is rod-shaped, and an oral cavity material 17 is attached to one end thereof.
Although the length of the support rod 16 is not particularly limited, when the rod-shaped device 15 is attached to the annular device 11 as shown in FIG. It is preferable to set the length so that the Therefore, the length of the support rod 16 is preferably longer than the size of the main body 12 in the direction in which the first hole 13 and the second hole 14 are lined up, which is indicated by B in FIG.
The cross-sectional shape of the support rod 16 is not particularly limited, and can be appropriately set to a circular, square, triangular, star-shaped, irregular shape, or other geometric shape.

The thickness of the support rod 16 should be thinner than the main body 12 because of the structure in which the support rod 16 is used by being inserted into the annular tool 11. Here, "the thickness of the support rod is thinner than the main body" means that when the support rod 16 is inserted into the annular tool 11, the entire support rod 16 is arranged inside the main body 12 at the inserted part. means.
A more specific preferable range of the thickness of the support rod 16 is, although it also depends on the thickness of the main body 12, a range that is thinner than the main body 12 and a diameter of greater than 1 mm and less than 10 mm. If the support rod 16 has a cross section other than circular, the cross-sectional area is greater than 0.75 mm ² and less than 75 mm ² .
If the thickness of the support rod 16 is too thin compared to the thickness of the main body 12, there is a high possibility that the intraorally contained material 17 will come off, and on the other hand, if it is too thick, it becomes difficult to insert the support rod 16 into the annular appliance 11.

Furthermore, a groove or a step may be formed at the end of the support rod 16 to which the intraorally contained material 17 is attached. Thereby, it is possible to suppress the intraorally contained material 17 from coming off from the support rod 16.

The oral cavity material 17 is a member held at one end of the support rod 16, and is made of a material that the patient should contain in the oral cavity. Specific examples include candy and the like. Specific examples include candy, caramel, gum, gummies, marshmallows, and the like. Among these, candy that can be kept in the oral cavity for a certain amount of time is more preferable.

Although the shape and size of the intraorally contained material 17 are not particularly limited, it is preferably spherical from the viewpoint of preventing damage to the oral cavity. The diameter is preferably 10 mm or more in order to prevent the product from being chewed up too quickly and to ensure that it is of a size that cannot be swallowed whole even if it comes off the support rod. On the other hand, if it is too large, it may cause choking when put in the mouth, so it is preferable that the diameter is 40 mm or less.

The oral cavity material 17 can be made into a candy as described above, but in that case, it is preferable to add flavor or sweetness to the candy. This can increase patient comfort. Flavors include citrus and mint, and sweetness includes sucrose. On the other hand, sugar alcohols and artificial sweeteners such as sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol, reduced maltose starch syrup, low-glucose reduced starch syrup, reduced palatinose, sucralose, saccharin sodium, aspartame, and acesulfame may be used as sweeteners from the viewpoint of preventing blood sugar levels from rising. .
Furthermore, from a dental perspective, materials that can be expected to have a remineralizing effect or an antibacterial effect may be included. Specific examples include lactoferrin, casein, casein phosphopeptide-amorphous calcium phosphate complex, cetylpyridinium chloride, penzalkonium chloride, isopropylmethylphenol, chlorhexidine hydrochloride, chlorhexidine gluconate, and the like.

In the oral function rehabilitation device 10 having the above configuration, as shown in FIG. By inserting the end portion where 17 is not placed, the intraorally contained material 17 is placed so as to protrude to the outside of the annular appliance 11.

The patient exercises by holding the main body 12 of the oral function rehabilitation device 10, holding the oral cavity material 17 in his mouth and licking it in a resting posture and state. This can be expected to maintain and improve the patient's chewing and swallowing abilities.
According to the oral function rehabilitation device 10, the main body 12 is formed in a large annular shape, which makes it easy to grip and difficult to drop. Furthermore, since the oral cavity-containing material 17 can be licked directly without using a net or the like, there is less discomfort in the oral cavity.

Moreover, according to the annular device 11 and the oral function rehabilitation device 10, the structure is simple, and since there are almost no parts that enter the oral cavity, they are hygienic and easy to maintain. Moreover, since the rod-shaped tool 15 is made detachable from the annular tool 11, the rod-shaped tool can be replaced, which can be said to be economical.

10 Oral function rehabilitation device 11, 21 Annular device 12 Main body 13 First hole 14 Second hole 15 Rod-shaped device 16 Support rod 17 Intra-oral material 22 Projection

Claims (4)

An instrument used for oral function training,
a body that is annular;
a first hole that is annular and communicates between the inside and outside of the main body;
a second hole provided in the main body and provided opposite to the first hole ,
the second hole does not penetrate the main body;
Annular tool. The annular tool according to claim 1 , wherein the main body is made of a flexible elastic member. The annular tool according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein the main body is provided with a protrusion so as to extend the first hole. The annular tool according to any one of claims 1 to 3 ,
a rod-shaped tool held by the annular tool;
The rod-shaped tool is
a rod-shaped support rod;
a member to be contained within the patient's oral cavity, disposed at one end of the support rod;
The support rod passes through the first hole, the other end of the support rod is inserted into the second hole, and a member to be included in the patient's oral cavity is arranged on the annular outside of the main body. Oral function rehabilitation equipment.

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