What is already known about this topic
● Frail older patients in hospitals and long-term care settings
who are dependent on others for oral hygiene
care are at risk for poor oral health.
● Older patients in institutional settings are retaining
their own teeth much longer than ever before, but
their state of oral hygiene, a key component of oral
health, is known to be poor.
● There is no common understanding of the widely used
terms ‘oral care’ and ‘mouth care’ or the activities
these interventions should entail.
What this paper adds
● This concept analysis illustrates that contemporary
goals of oral hygiene care extend beyond enhancing
well-being and include infection prevention, enhanced
swallowing reflex, and minimization of pain.
● Identification of defining attributes of oral hygiene
care, such as inspecting the oral cavity and cleansing
oral tissues, makes it possible for nurses to have a
common conceptualization of this goal-oriented intervention.
● Several antecedents such as protocols, supplies and an
ability to work with patients who resist care must be
in place if oral hygiene care is to be completed.
Implications for practice and/or policy
● When nurses teach, direct and supervise others in
delivering oral hygiene care, having clarity around the
defining attributes of that intervention would support
consistent quality of care.
● The defining attributes of oral hygiene care identified
in this concept analysis are reflected in the list of activities
associated with oral health maintenance, as it is
classified in the Nursing Interventions Classification
taxonomy and could contribute to a refinement of that
list to support standardized nursing language.
● Many of the potential consequences of oral hygiene
care identified in this concept analysis are seemingly
nursing-sensitive outcomes and the results of this analysis
could encourage further research into linking nursing