Oral Care Frequency in Mechanically Ventilated Patients

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.

In the literature, it is recommended to use chlorhexidine gluconate solution in oral care to prevent the development of ventilator-associated pneumonia in mechanically ventilated patients.However, there is no evidence on how often oral care should be performed.

When the literature is reviewed, further studies with conclusive evidence to show how often chlorhexidine gluconate is effective are needed. For this reason, this study was planned to determine the effect of three different oral care frequencies on the integrity of the oral mucous membrane in patients dependent on mechanical ventilators.

The research is planned to be carried out between 01.06.2021 and 01.06.2022 in the internal medicine intensive care unit of Aydın Adnan Menderes University Practice and Research Hospital.

The population of the research is the patients hospitalized in the Internal Medicine intensive care unit of Aydın Adnan Menderes University Practice and Research Hospital between 01.06.2021 and 01.06.2022, and the sample is; Patients who are older than 18 years of age, who are in the first 24 hours of mechanical ventilation, who are 18 years of age and older, and whose relatives have consented. The sample of the research; Patients with thrombocytopenia, leukopenia and oral aphthae, stomatitis, candiasis, gingivitis who have had an oral surgical procedure will not be accepted.

Before starting the practice in this study, the purpose of the research will be explained to all nurses working in the unit by the researchers and an information meeting about oral care will be held. After the operability of the guide in the intensive care unit is ensured, the data collection phase will begin. Randomization of patients will be done by the nurse in charge of the service.

The frequency of oral care of the patients will be in three groups. Oral care will be done twice a day for the patients in the first group, 3 times a day for the patients in the second group, and 4 times a day for the patients in the third group. Oral care of the patients will be applied according to the guide used in the training given to the nurses. In oral care, 0.12% chlorhexidine solution will be used.

The concentration of 0.12% of the chlorhexidine gluconate solution planned to be used in the research is the most frequently used form compared to the other concentrations of the solution. And no side effects were noted in the studies.

For this reason, 0.12% chlorhexidine solution was preferred. When the literature is examined, this density was preferred because it is the most frequently used solution in the oral care of patients under mechanical ventilation support.

The oral mucosa of the patients will be evaluated with the Oral Evaluation Scale by the researcher before the first oral care application every morning for four days. According to the score obtained from the scale, the researcher will evaluate the patients as normal oral mucosa, mild dysfunction, moderate dysfunction and severe dysfunction.