Odontologia na UTI: Porque e para que?

Abstract

Many studies tried to establish a direct relationship between the oral health and general health status, especially when patients are debilitated and hospitalized due to significant medical problems. Frequently patients admitted to the intensive care units (ICU) show a poor oral health condition and do not receive oral hygiene measures. The aim of this study was to establish the relationship between oral health andgeneral health status of the patients through a bibliographic review of medical databases, taking into consideration whether hospitalized patients received or not oral hygiene measures. Furthermore, it discusses how dental professional are important in the ICU team. A search was conducted in medical databases, such as PubMed(MEDLINE) and BVS (BIREME/LILACS and BBO), and the virtual libraries from SCIELO and CAPES, using Portuguese and English terms, without restriction to year of publication, age of type of study. The results of this search showed that oral hygiene measures are important to hospitalized patients, because they reduce the possibility of new infections, improve the prognosis and quality of life after hospital discharge, they also decrease the total cost of health maintenance to the governmentand optimize the work of the health team inside hospitals. In conclusion, it is necessary to have dental professional in the ICU team, because the care of hospitalized patient is improved and making health care complete.