Posted on 07/29/2022 8:34:11 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Hospital patients not getting their teeth brushed, or not brushing their teeth themselves, is believed to be a leading cause of hundreds of thousands of cases of pneumonia a year in patients who have not been put on a ventilator. A majority of cases are non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia, or NVHAP, which kills up to 30% of those infected.
Many cases of NVHAP could be avoided if hospital staffers more dutifully brushed the teeth of bedridden patients, according to a growing body of peer-reviewed research.
NVHAP, a risk for virtually all hospital patients, is often caused by bacteria from the mouth that gathers in the scummy biofilm on unbrushed teeth and is aspirated into the lungs.
According to the National Organization for NV-HAP Prevention, which was founded in 2020, this pneumonia infects about 1 in every 100 hospital patients and kills 15% to 30% of them. For those who survive, the illness often extends their hospital stay by up to 15 days and makes it much more likely they will be readmitted within a month or transferred to an intensive care unit.
In California, a study at 21 Kaiser Permanente hospitals used a reprioritization of oral care and getting patients out of bed to reduce rates of hospital-acquired pneumonia by around 70%. At Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento, better oral care reduced NVHAP cases by a yearly average of 35%.
At Orlando Regional Medical Center in Florida, a medical unit and a surgical unit where patients received enhanced oral care reduced NVHAP rates by 85% and 56%, respectively, when compared with similar units that received normal care.
And the most compelling results come from a veterans' hospital in Salem, Virginia, where a 2016 oral care pilot program reduced rates of NVHAP by 92%.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Wonder if this applies to these pneumonia-causing bacteria?
I'll have to look into it.
Thanks for this post [and for all your personal health posts!].
This makes perfect sense. Similarly, poor oral hygiene and weakened gums have been implicated in heart problems.
Shit brought in by illegal aliens.
Biden Disease.
Excellent point!
If you brush your pet dogs teeth daily, they will live past 15 years. The germs from mouth infect heart & kidneys.
And if you start coughing they will give you cough drop which would add to the problem.
Good question- also would just plain mouthwash help prevent it?
on another note- I read that pneumonia is the “Old Man’s Friend”, ie, it’s not a bad way to go- apparently the person goes unconscious right towards the end- I was always pretty fearful about it- thinking it was basically drowning- but apparently it’s not all that bad-
Pneumonia may well be called the friend of the aged. Taken off by it in an acute, short, not often painful illness, the old man escapes those ‘cold gradations of decay’ so distressing to himself and his friends.
– Sir William Osler (1898)
brush teeth and a hydrogen peroxide mouthwash.
Does the plain mouthwash kill the infecting bacteria, I guess the question would be.
Yep- i meant prevent pneumonia- by killing the bacteria- some mouthwashes claim to kill a bunch of different bacteria- The following is an in vitro study done that suggests it would-
“Some active ingredients in mouthwash are effective against pneumonia-causing bacteria, according to the results of an in vitro study”
My mom was a nurse. They would have patients that were essentially comatose. Unable to adequately brush the teeth if these patients my mom would soak the edge of a washcloth in cream and lay it in their mouth. Apparently the cream attracted the nasties Her patients never got pneumonia
I’ve used a plaque reducer mouthwash for years. Much Better than just an ordinary mouthwash.
I’ll have to check into that. Thanks for the tip!
med folks don’t get the praise they deserve- like doing that for patients- when they cant fend for themselves- they take alot of abuse too, as patients are drugged up a lot, some become angry on drugs- Darvocet woudl do that to me- but other opioids don’t- not sure why darvocet does-
You won’t be sorry!
Thank you for giving a shout out to the meds who do hard duty
My daughter is a nurse. She had one guy in DTs try and break her arm because he didn’t want to be in hospital. She had him sign a release AMA and called the sheriff. He had somewhere else to sleep it off that night
Every once in a while I’ll watch medical procedure videos only. Some of them, like removing plaque so thick it looks like spackle, or ears so full of wax you wonder how they had room for brains, I find myself hoping the patient got that way by being unconscious for long periods.
This article indicates that might easily be the case.
I agree, this is a gross oversight, in every sense of the term!
I think a few shots of Jack during the day would do more bacteria killing. I don’t know for sure but would be willing to try if if someone would buy me a case or two.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.