Brazilian researchers analyzed data from 254 adult patients who stayed in a general ICU for at least 48 hours. Certain patients received enhanced dental care provided by a dentist or while others received routine oral hygiene performed by CU nurse staff.
Patients provided enhanced dental care were 56 percent less likely to develop a respiratory tract infection during their ICU stay compared to the control patient group. Also, ventilator-associated pneumonia rates per 1,000 ventilator days were 16.5 for the control group and 7.6 for the enhanced dental care group.
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