The Importance of the Dental Surgeon in the Intensive Care Unit: Preventive Aspects

Gescelia Vieira Sena¹, Diego Portes Vieira Leite², Fabio Cesar Prosdocimi³, Leopoldo Penteado Nucci⁴, Élio Hitoshi Shinohara⁵ and Irineu Gregnanin Pedron⁶*
¹Undergraduate Student, Universidade Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil
²Professor, Department of Oral Surgery, Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul, São Paulo, Brazil
³Head and Professor, Department of Human Anatomy, Faculdade de Guarulhos, Guarulhos, Brazil
⁴Professor, Department of Periodontology, UNIEURO, Brasília, Brazil
⁵Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hospital Regional de Osasco, Osasco, Brazil
⁶DDS, MDS, Independent Researcher, Private practice, São Paulo, Brazil
*Corresponding Author: Irineu Gregnanin Pedron, DDS, MDS, Independent Researcher, Private practice, São Paulo, Brazil.

Published: March 31, 2024

DOI: 10.55162/MCMS.06.204

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Abstract  

Patient admission to the Intensive Care Unit leads to pathological changes in the stomatognathic system. Most of the time, due to the absence of enteral feeding when patients are intubated, xerostomia is widely observed, increasing the risk of intraoral opportunistic infections. These infections, in turn, can lead to other systemic complications, increasing hospitalization time and costs and requiring prolonged pharmacological therapies, thus increasing the morbidity and mortality rate. In view of this, considering the preventive aspects, the presence of a dental surgeon in the Intensive Care Unit promotes oral hygiene care for patients, favouring quality of life and improvements in hospital care.

Keywords: Dentistry; Hospital; Intensive Care Unit; Oral Health; Oral Hygiene

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