Marissa Hamby

Log of Literature
11/4/2015
Gonyea, J. (2009). Oral Health Care for Patients on Dialysis. Nephrology Nursing
Journal 36(3). 327-328, 332.

This article reviews the main issues in oral health with patients on dialysis.

The most common problems with these patients are tooth loss, jaw problems,

xerostomia, halitosis, stomatitis, tooth decay, and gingivitis. Most of these problems

are due to a decrease in saliva, uremic consequence and even inattentiveness to

their oral health care. A decrease in saliva can lead to xerostomia, or dry mouth. Dry

mouth can also be caused by their fluid intake restrictions or certain medications

they may be on. Uremic consequence can cause halitosis because it raises the level

of urea in their saliva and that breaks down into a bad smelling substance,

ammonia. Patients on dialysis tend to give less attention and care to their oral

cavity because it seems to be of little importance in comparison to other health

problems in their lives. It is important to stress to dialysis patients how important

oral health care and regular dental visits are to their overall health and not just for

their mouth. Brushing and flossing daily could cut down on the amount of patients

with gingivitis and periodontal disease. In the article, it stated that almost half of

dialysis patients reported not brushing their teeth every day. The article believes

that getting patients on dialysis to have better home oral health care, brush twice

per day and floss once per day, and getting them to regularly visit their dentist

would help a lot in the groups high rate of oral health issues.

I think working with this group of patients to improve their home health care

and get them to visit the dentist regularly is a great idea and could help improve

their overall health. I think the amount of patients that are not brushing regularly is

outrageously high and I think that having oral hygiene instruction with these
 Marissa Hamby
Log of Literature
11/4/2015
patients would be helpful, especially if you cannot get them to visit the dentist

regularly due to financial or other health problems. Some of their health problems

while on dialysis is unavoidable but if they had oral hygiene instruction and knew

how important taking care of your teeth are it could cut down on a lot of their caries

and gum disease problems within the group of dialysis patients. Overall, I think this

was a great article but they should have thought more about how oral hygiene

instruction could benefit their patients more than trying to get them to visit the

dentist every six months.