Hospital dentistry and the occurrence of pneumonia

ABSTRACT Objective: To determine the oral health conditions of the elderly patients hospitalized and restricted to the bed and to correlate with the development of infections at a distance, especially pneumonia. To verify if the daily follow-up of the dental surgeon improves oral health and reduces the occurrence of respiratory infection in hospitalized elderly patients. Methods: Quasi-experimental study with hospitalized and bed restricted elderly, two simple randomized groups, one group was evaluated and monitored daily by the dental surgeon, the other group was evaluated and received guidance on health care and oral hygiene and of dental prostheses. Results: Both groups presented poor health and oral hygiene and prosthetic conditions. There was improvement in the oral health conditions of both groups. Seven percent of the patients developed pneumonia during the period of hospital stay and the oral health of these patients were considered regular or bad. Conclusion: The performance of the dental surgeon promoted improvements in the oral health of both groups in the first evaluation, with no statistical difference between the group that received daily follow-up and the group that received guidelines, so it was concluded that oral health care should be a behavior of the team multidisciplinary, dentistry should intervene if the changes interfere in the clinical condition of the patient and offer training and support to the multidisciplinary team that is in the first line of care with hospitalized patients.

摘要
**目的**：明确住院且卧床老年患者的口腔健康状况，并分析其与远隔部位感染（尤其是肺炎）发生的相关性；验证牙科医师每日随访是否可改善住院老年患者的口腔健康状况，降低呼吸道感染发生率。
**方法**：本研究为类实验研究，纳入住院卧床老年患者，分为两个简单随机分组：一组由牙科医师每日评估并监测，另一组仅接受评估，以及健康护理、口腔卫生与义齿相关指导。
**结果**：两组患者均存在较差的全身健康、口腔卫生及义齿状况；两组的口腔健康状况均有所改善。住院期间有7%的患者发生肺炎，此类患者的口腔健康状况被评定为一般或较差。
**结论**：首次评估时，牙科医师的干预可改善两组患者的口腔健康状况；接受每日随访组与仅接受指导组之间未出现统计学差异。据此得出结论：口腔护理应纳入多学科团队的常规工作范畴，当口腔状况变化影响患者临床病情时，牙科应介入干预，并为一线住院患者护理的多学科团队提供培训与支持。