Relevance of dental care in hospitals: a brief systematic review

Abstract

Introduction: In the scenario of dental care in hospitals, attention should not be focused only on dental treatment, but first assess the patient's health status. Dentistry is of paramount importance in preventive actions, as well as in the elimination of inflammatory, infectious and painful symptomatological processes that may contribute to the loss of hospitalized patients. Objective: The present study described the importance of the dentist's role in the hospital environment, as well as the dental care in the hospital environment as a decision tool for other treatments or surgical procedures. Methods: The present study followed a systematic review model, following the rules of systematic review – PRISMA. The search strategy was performed in the PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. The present study was carried out from February to May of 2022. Results and Conclusion: A total of 107 articles were found. A total of 57 articles were fully evaluated and 18 were included and discussed in this study. Considering the Cochrane tool for risk of bias, the overall assessment resulted in 20 studies that were excluded with a high risk of bias (studies with a small sample size). Also, 20 studies were excluded because they did not meet the GRADE, and 39 studies were excluded for presenting a minor risk of bias. The dentist must promote the general health of the hospitalized individual, based on interdisciplinary planning developed together with other health professionals, as well as assess the main needs of the patient and contribute to the quality of life of these individuals. The role of the dentist as an integral part of the multi-professional team in the area of health in the ICU is fundamental, as its presence could minimize problems in hospitalized patients.