Oral health status of patients in intensive care unit: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Patients in intensive care unit (ICU) may present oral alterations asa result of patients' systemic conditions, the use of medications, intubation orpoor oral hygiene. Oral alterations should be detected and treated because theymay aggravate patients' condition. The objective of this study was to evaluate thetypes and frequencies of clinically detected oral alterations in inpatients of an ICU.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study in which an oral evaluation of patientshospitalized in an ICU of a public hospital was performed. Demographic, socialand clinical characteristics were collected from medical records. Oral examswere performed by two trained dentists, with reliability checked by intra-classcorrelation coefficient, while patients were lying in the hospital bed, using a frontalheadlamp, tongue depressor and sterile gauze. All data were recorded in studyprotocol forms and transferred to a data base for analysis. Results: Thirty-sevenpatients, with similar distribution between genders, withmedian age of 62 yearswere evaluated. The most frequent causes for hospitalization were postoperativecare (51.35%) and respiratory problems (29.72%). About 90% of the inpatientspresented some type of oral alterations during the hospitalization period. Themost common clinical alterations were dry lips (86.5%); coated tongue (61.1%);paleness of the oral mucosa (54.1%); oral foci of infection (37.8%) and candidiasis(13.5%). Conclusion: The majority of inpatients of the ICU presented some type oforal alteration, and the most frequent were dry lips and coated tongue. Dataobserved in this study reinforce the need of the dental team support during theperiod of hospitalization.