Oral Care and Nonventilator Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia

Nonventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia (NV-HAP) is among the most common and lethal health care–associated infections. Oral care likely reduces pneumonia risk in select groups of sick patients, such as those on mechanical ventilation. Do patients in general hospital wards benefit from brushing their teeth?

In the multicenter HAPPEN trial, researchers randomly assigned nearly 9000 patients across nine hospital wards to either an enhanced oral care program — bedside oral kits, dedicated nursing staff ensuring oral care, and an audit program — or usual care. All wards started with usual care at roughly the same time (winter) and then sequentially crossed over to the intervention condition, with most patients assigned to the interventi…