Sunstar PATAKARA

Oral Frail® assessment and training app for optimal oral function

Sunstar has developed a unique self-check and training app based on Patakara exercises of the tongue and lips which can be used for the detection and prevention of oral frailty. Oral Frail® is a new concept that seeks to bring to attention the negative chain of events that starts with minor deteriorations in oral function, leading to impaired eating ability and an overall decline of the body and mind. Such seemingly trivial declines in mouth function have been found to be the entrance into old age, a condition known as "Oral Frailty". The weakening of our mouth functions affects our ability to enjoy healthy meals and maintain our connection with society. It has also been shown that if we remain in this Oral Frail® condition, the body will start to weaken, increasing the risk of general frailty and ultimately the need for nursing care. However, if we can notice these symptoms early enough and take appropriate measures, we can prevent this decline and maintain our path to healthy aging. For this, it is important to pay close attention to your mouth functions and their changes.

SELF-CHECK: you can obtain simple self-assessments of your oral frailty status by performing rapid sequential vocalizations of 'pa', 'ta', and 'ka’. You can easily check whether your mouth’s eating and speaking function is healthy. The 'pa' sound checks the lips' ability to prevent food from spilling from the mouth when eating as well as your capacity to articulate and speak properly. 'Ta’ checks that the front of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth properly, which is essential for healthy mastication, crushing food and swallowing. Finally, 'Ka' checks the ability of your soft-palate muscles at the back of the tongue to send food to the oesophagus for correct swallowing. The app checks how many times you can repeat these three sounds in rapid succession for 5 seconds. In a healthy condition, one should be able to vocalize these syllables at least 6 times per second.

TRAINING: If you articulate 'pa', 'ta', and 'ka' in rapid succession every day, this will help you improve or maintain your oral function and keep your mouth condition fit. You can perform these simple exercises that will only take a few minutes of your time each day and monitor your progress. Let's keep our mouth function healthy in order to enjoy healthy meals and maintain our connection with society for as long as possible.

ORAL FRAIL® is a registered trademark of Sunstar Suisse SA, registered in the European Union and other countries.