• Ian Needleman, Jung Hyun-Ryu, David Brealey, Mishal Sachdev, Donna Moskal-Fitzpatrick, Georgia Bercades, Janette Nagle, Katherine Lewis, Elisa Agudo, Aviva Petrie, Jean Suvan, Nikos Donos, and Mervyn Singer.
• Unit of Periodontology and International Centre for Evidence-Based Oral Health, UCL Eastman Dental Institute, London, UK. i.needleman@.ucl.ac.uk
• J. Clin. Periodontol. 2012 Nov 1;39(11):1011-6.

AimTo investigate the effect of hospitalization on oral health as assessed by dental plaque.Materials And MethodsObservational study in a critical care unit (CCU). Participants were recruited within 24 h of admission. Dental plaque amount was assessed at baseline, 1 and 2 weeks using the Debris index-soft deposits (Greene & Vermillion 1960).ResultsFifty participants were recruited with 36 available for outcome assessment at 1 week and 10 at 2 weeks. The principal reason for losses was early discharge with no evidence of a difference between patients present only at baseline and those present at 1 week. The median value for dental plaque at baseline was 4 (95% CI: 4, 6). The median dental plaque increase from baseline to week 1 was 1.5 (95% CI: -1, 4), and this was statistically significant (p = 0.04). The median increase from week 1 to week 2 was 1.0 (95% CI -8, 6) and not statistically significant (p = 0.68).ConclusionsOral health as assessed by dental plaque deteriorates following hospitalization in CCU. Such change could lead to impairment of quality of life and well-being as well as to increasing the risk of important healthcare-associated infections such as nosocomial pneumonia.© 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

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