Dental Plaque And Respiratory Infection in Elderly
Dental plaque may often be home to respiratory pathogens responsible for hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP), according to a study by researchers as the University of Buffalo in NY. Of 49 critically ill nursing home residents who required intensive care treatment, 28 or 57% had aerobic pathogens in their dental plaque, including Staphylococcus aureus, and enteric Gram-negative bacilli, pathogens commonly found in elderly patients with severe pneumonia, and 14 or 29% developed HAP. According to a report in Novemberís CHEST (Journal of the American College of Chest Physicians), institutionalized elders comprise a population that has dental plaque
due to lack of oral hygiene, among other factors.
Plaque Can Cause Aspiration Pneumonia
In research on a group of 95 elderly persons from nursing homes who were hospitalised for severe aspiration pneumonia, investigators concluded that the bacteriology associated with their disease could have sprung from micro-organisms that had been colonized in either their dental plaque or oropharyngeal cavity at the time of aspiration. Many older institutionalized patients have deterioration in their activities of daily living, It is quite plausible that poor oral health, because of the difficulty of accessing professional dental care and insufficient or poor oral hygiene, leads to an environment that promotes colonization of dental plaques by anaerobic and Gram-negative organisms.
June 2003 of the American Thoracic Society's peer-reviewed American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Ali El-Solh, M.D., M.P.H., of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, University of Buffalo School of Medicine, Buffalo, New York
Resource: July/August 2002 issue (Volume 50, Number 4) of General Dentistry.
Aspiration Pneumonia Linked to Poor Dental Health Medinews.com
Following research on 95 elderly patients from a nursing home who were hospitalized for aspiration pneumonia, investigators concluded that the bacteriology associated with their disease could have come from microorganisms colonized in either their dental plaque or oropharyngeal cavity at the time of aspiration. Aspiration pneumonia consists of inflammation of the lung and bronchi caused by inhaling or choking on vomit. They concluded that poor dental health in nursing home patients due to lack of professional dental care and poor oral hygiene could easily have led to an environment that promoted the colonization of dental plaque by anaerobic and Gram-negative organisms. Of the 67 pathogens identified, Gram-negative enteric bacilli comprised 49%, anaerobic bacteria comprised 16%, and Staphylococcus aureus comprised 12%. The crude mortality rate among the patients studied was 33% for the anaerobic group. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Buffalo School of Medicine (NY, USA), was published in the June 15, 2003, issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. The authors noted that neither nursing home staff nor physicians appeared to give high priority to the oral care of residents. 09/03
|
