Dental Hygienist Intervention to Prevent Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia in an Intensive Care Unit

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the leading cause of death from nosocomial infection with 1 in 5 affected patients dying.¹  It increases the duration of hospitalization by 5 to 7 days and health care costs by approximately $40 000 per hospitalization.²  Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a pneumonia not present at the time of admission into the hospital, developing in a patient who has received mechanical ventilation for at least 48 hours.¹  Although the development of VAP is multifactorial, evidence suggests there is an association between oral hygiene and the development of pneumonia—particularly the role of the bacterial biofilm present in the oral cavity that colonizes on tooth surfaces and oral mucosa and is at risk for aspiration into the lungs.³  Colonization of this oral bacterial biofilm is exacerbated with omitted or low-quality oral hygiene, allowing the bacteria to triple in the oral cavity within 3 to 6 hours....