The Effect of Oral Care Frequency on Oral Mucosa Membrane Integrity in Patients With Mechanical Ventilation Support

Oral hygiene is one of the applications where the individual needs the most hygienic care. Providing oral care and maintaining oral hygiene improves the comfort and quality of life by ensuring that the individual eats healthy and feels well.Inadequate oral care can negatively affect all these, as well as cause problems such as dry mouth, dental caries, periodontal diseases, bad breath and stomatitis.Therefore, in order to maintain oral health, individuals must perform oral care effectively.

Nurses need to have adequate oral intake to maintain the integrity of the oral mucosa, especially in patients who cannot be fed orally, with fluid restriction, administered nasogastric tube, mouth breathing, receiving oxygen therapy, undergoing oral and maxillofacial surgery, undergoing radiation therapy, chemotherapy, in the terminal period, in coma, and in patients dependent on mechanical ventilator. care must be provided.

Defense mechanisms in intensive care patients are affected by their disease and multiple interventions that circumvent natural host defenses. Treatments applied in intensive care units, lack of fluid intake of the patient, and some materials used for treatment and care cause changes in the oral mucous membrane. Inadequate protective mechanisms in patients can lead to both local and systemic complications such as caries, periodontal disease, oral mucosal infections, and ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Bacterial oropharyngeal colonization progressively changes to tracheal colonization leading to ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Especially in patients connected to mechanical ventilators, the entry of bacteria into the respiratory tract is facilitated and increased due to the endotracheal tube, causing the coughing reflex and mucociliar activity to be impaired and secretion to increase. In this case, gram-positive bacteria that make up the normal flora in the oral mucosa are replaced by gram-negative bacteria, causing changes in the oral flora and plaque formation on the teeth. Therefore, oral care becomes much more important.The solution and frequency to be used gain importance for oral care to be effective on the integrity of the oral mucous membrane.