Brushing teeth of ICU patients could mean fewer cases of hospital-acquired pneumonia
Daily brushing should be considered an essential part of hospital care, the study authors say.
Cleaning ICU patients’ pearly whites once a day appears to cut their risk of developing hospital-acquired pneumonia by a third, a US study shows.
The review of data from 2800 patients found that those with a daily brushing routine also had lower mortality rates, spent fewer days on ventilation and had shorter hospital stays.
“These findings suggest that routine toothbrushing should be considered an essential component of standard care in hospitalised patients,” the authors wrote in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Patients receiving invasive mechanical ventiliation had the strongest evidence that toothbrushing could reduce rates of pneumonia and mortality, they said.
