Importance of the Dentist in the hospitals: literature narrative review

Abstract

With the growing interest in the interface between oral health and general health, many studies have verified the work of the dental surgeon in supporting patients in intensive care, however Brazil has not followed this trend. Therefore, the objective of this work is to discuss the importance of the dental surgeon in the hospital, through a review of the theme. A literature review was carried out, whose data collection was performed in the MEDLINE, Scielo and LILACS databases, covering publications from 2000 to 2020, through the application of the health sciences descriptors “dental hospital unit”, “dental care”, “Oral health services”, “infection control” and “oral hygiene”, and the MeSH terms “dental service, hospital”, “dental care”, “dental health services”, “infection control, dental” and “oral hygiene”. At the end, 37 papers were included in this review.The results of the research showed the dentist's performance as a member of the hospital team helped to reduce mortality and hospitalization time. It was also found necessary in cases of long hospital stays, demands for treatments that are privately assigned to the dentist. Nevertheless, several studies reveal the lack of standardization of the oral care methodology for hospitalized patients, and the dentist is the professional who has the best indication for the elaboration of guidelines and supervision of the executing team. It concludes with the findings of this review corroborate, with relevant evidence, on the need for the performance of the dental surgeon in the hospital, as well as in the standardization of this assistance.