Pneumonia is not only a common infection in older people,
it is also the most common cause of death from nosocomial
infection in this population.
Bacterial pneumonia is
thought to be due to organisms that inhabit the oropharynx,
and aspiration of oropharyngeal contents has been suggested
as the mechanism by which these bacteria reach the lower
respiratory tract.
Many older patients in nursing homes
have poor oral health because of the difficulty of access to
professional dental care and insufficient personal oral hygiene
care.
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.