Learn More About Oral Care And Aspiration Pneumonia

By Christopher Wallace


Commonly, aspiration may generally not result in pneumonia. It is nevertheless thought that your larynx that performs the role of a valve can be inefficient at times in its role of preventing the access of food as well as secretions to your respiratory system. Nevertheless, aspiration pneumonia is a consequence of the ingestion of large bacterial loads into the respiratory systems that overwhelms and causes weaknesses in the immune system. In consequence, it is vital to be informed on oral care and aspiration pneumonia.

On the other hand, it is assumed that people who are normally dysphagic are usually more vulnerable to this pneumonic cases due to various reasons but not for all dysphagic cases. The first reason is that patients having this condition must have suffered from some other kind of illnesses such as heart attack or might have undergone through some kind of surgical procedures. The severe illnesses normally result in a response in the hypothalamus of the sick person, which then lowers the immunity.

This consequently leads to the development of the condition especially between 3 to 7 days following your medical event. Secondly, controversy surrounds the origin of pneumonia-causing bacteria in a dysphagic patient. Despite other claims of the origin being the stomach adequate research as well as dental literature points to oral hygiene as a more likely source. Usually, there is an increased amount of anaerobic bacteria especially in your mouth cavity during a severe illness.

As a result, stress response that is regulated by your hypothalamus will result in a cessation or decline in secretion of oral mucous and saliva in your mouth cavity. Saliva, as well as mucous usually helps in fighting bacteria, because their immune properties. Consequently, their decrease implies a decline in their functions which allows bacteria to multiply in the mouth. The bacterial load, therefore, increases with every bit of inhalation thus causing the illness.

Oral care basically assists in fighting the bacteria that could develop inside the mouth particularly when you get severely ill. In fact, aspiration-induced pneumonic can be significantly reduced when one frequently visits dental hygienists or if these specialists visit patients in nursing facilities. Again, the ventilator-dependent condition is significantly lessened by observing some aggressive oral care.

Following the implication of your mouth cavity hygiene to this condition, there are numerous issues that need to be considered so as to maintain proper hygiene. First, you will be required to observe mouth hygiene by brushing your teeth a minimum of once a day, but three times a day is usually more effective. For the patients, the nurses use toothbrushes that have suction tubes to help catch secretions when brushing in order to prevent swallowing of bacteria.

On the contrary, green sponges normally used in cleaning the mouth are usually ineffective and result in more damages. Their effects are similar to that of lemon-glycerine swabs. Although lemon does the job, the glycerine swabs generally moisten the mouth but never does some good cleaning.

Basically, proper mouth hygiene prevents the accumulation of bacteria especially for severely ill patients. As a result, it is recommended that frequent and proper cleaning is done. This will prevent potential bacterial aspiration pneumonia




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