What Is Mouth Care In Nursing, And How To Give Mouth Care

Mouth care in nursing is not routinely a part of nursing for a patient who can take care of himself and is fully conscious and able to clean his mouth. But it is certainly essential for bed ridden patient who can not properly clean his mouth.They must do focus on oral care.Dirty mouth causes discomfort and loss of appetite.It may lead to monomial or candida infection, partitas, septic ulceration of gums and fauces or gastroenteritis and even inhalation pneumonia.

Aim

• To have aesthetic sense for self and others attending eluding neighbouring patients if any.
• To keep mouth clean and refreshed.
• To avoid foul breath and foul odour while talking. To help in keeping teeth in good condition.
• To prevent and treat mouth infections.
• To help increase in appetite and stimulate flow of saliva.
• To prevent infection of salivary glands.
• To remove sores and prevent their formation.

When patient is able to take care his own teeth :

Material

Toothbrush and paste or green sticks. 2. A jug of water wash. 3. A bowl for collection of waste dirty water, Towel. 5. Tongue brush if required.

Procedure.

For such patient who can take care of his teeth, place every thing ready for use in front of patient on side table in a comfortable position. Place a towel in front of the patient on lap in position and allow him to clean teeth and mouth himself. After cleaning place the cleaning items tidy in its place in bedside  provided.

You Must Know About Mouth Care In Nursing, In order to Know How You Can Be Good Nurse

When patient has artificial teeth.

Sue artificial dentures should be cleaned twice daily. The dentures are scraped in clean warm water with brush. Soda-bi-carbonate is I for cleaning. Now-a-days dentures cleaning fluid is in different packs marketed in various brand names by which are equally good and hygienic. The patient his mouth after removal of dentures. After cleaning, the placed conveniently.

When the patient is unable to clean his mouth

In severe illness and in unconscious patient the mouth cleaning becomes an essential part of nursing care.The mouth may require frequent cleaning may be four hourly 6 hourly depending on situation.A patient under mouth feeding requires more frequent cleaning than a patient completely on intravenous fluid therapy.

Material

Glass on feding cup.mouth wash sloution.jug of water.kidney tray.gauge pieces in bowl.one artery forcep.one dressing forcep.applicator.baroglycerine in bottle.one small towel.tongue depresser.mouth gag.

Procedure

procedure should be informed to patient if conscious. D side screen is placed for privacy

• The patient is placed in comfortable position depend! the type of patient—conscious, unconscious or semi-a* spacious sitting or lying sidewise.
• Bring the tray to the bedside.
• Place the towel under the chin of the patient to protect to protect the bed from soiling.
• If artificial denture, remove and clean as already described
• Take a swab firmly holding by an artery forcep dipped in mouth wash solution, squeeze it well against the side of i bowl inside and out and then swab the teeth gums. ” swabs are changed one after another as per requirement.
• The inside of the teeth and tongue is cleaned in the manner. The conscious patient rinse his mouth by himself.Hold a kidney tray under his chin with support of the head with other hand.
• Wipe the mouth and dry.
• Apply boro-glycerine paint over tongue and lips if required.
• Remove and keep all items tidy in proper place.
• Special care should be taken to remove sores and very gently to avoid bleeding underneath mucous me~
• Patients on milk diet should be mouth cleaned after milk feed by mouth.
• Conscious patients should be encouraged to take more by mouth unless otherwise restricted by doctor.
• Sticky diets or sweets should be avoided by patient as i of mouth care.
• Mouth should be rinsed after every sweet diet—may be small quantity like a chocolate.
• Along with mouth, nose should be attended by nun’ to remove crusts and dried nasal secretions. Some solution-may be normal saline-may be instilled in n prevent drying.

Month Wash Solutions

• Normal saline solution : This is a solution of common salt with water in proportion of 4 gm in 500 cc of water, is commonly used in wards.
• Hydrogen peroxide (tf-A): Solution is readily in market as a decolorizing agent. 5 to 20 cc can be mouth purpose.

Potassium Permanganate : KMn0₄.

This is available in crystal form. 4 cc of potassium perman­ganate sol (1 : 700) in a glass of water can be used for mouth wash. Alternately one small crystal can be put in glass of water. This is a powerful disinfectant and decolorizing agent.

Soda-Bicarb sol:

The solution is made with 4 gms of soda Bicarb powder in pint of water.

Thymol solution  

One fourth to half teaspoon of thymol is put in one cup of water (100-150 cc of water). It acts as an antiseptic agent.

Lemon Juice .

Two tea-spoon of lemon juice in a cup of water can be used as an improvised method for mouthwash.Never use dettol as mouth wash antiseptic.

Mouth care in nursing is an essential aspect of patient care, particularly for those who are unable to perform this task themselves. It involves various steps to ensure the oral hygiene of the patient. Here’s an overview in a tabular format:

This routine ensures the maintenance of oral hygiene, prevents infections, and improves overall comfort and health for the patient.