It is recognized that community-acquired pneumonia and lung abscesses can be the result of infection by anaerobic bacteria, and dental plaque would seem to be a logical source of these bacteria, especially in patients with periodontal desease.
However, to our knowledge, whether improving
oral hygiene would lower the risk in either of these
setting has not been studied. In the present study, we
treated these patients with oral care to minimize respiratory
infections, possibly caused by silent aspiration. A preliminary
experiment has been reported elsewhere.