Functional Oral-Motor Skills: Do They Change with Age?

Dysphagia, a difficulty eating or drinking, appears to increase with age and is a concern for our growing elderly population. Mastication, tongue mobility, and lip closure are skills of the oral phase of ingestion, and have been shown to deteriorate with age. However, it is not clear whether these changes affect functional feeding. It is also unclear whether dysphagia is the result of the aging process itself, or whether it is secondary to disease. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify changes during the oral phase of ingestion in a group of healthy seniors. Functional feeding skills and oral praxis abilities were measured in 79 healthy adults aged 60–97 years. The Modified Functional Feeding Assessment (FFAm) subscale of the Multidisciplinary Feeding Profile (MFP) and the Oral Praxis Subtest (OPS) of the Southern California Sensory Integration Test were administered respectively. An interview followed to obtain information on denture wear, use of hearing aids and glasses, and types of foods avoided. Seniors maintained functional feeding skills throughout the four decades studied. These skills were not age-dependent, but depended on whether or not subjects wore full dentures. Even though all of the seniors maintained functional feeding skills, more seniors in the younger group (7th decade 60%, 8th decade 67%) had difficulty with a variety of food textures such as soft, hard, fibrous, and some with tough skins, than the older group (9th decade 40%, 10th decade 44%). Oral praxis abilities were correlated significantly with age, but not with hearing aid use. Overall, healthy seniors maintained their functional feeding and oral praxis skills. Good health and natural dentition appear to be excellent indicators for functional feeding ability.