[Dysphagia] Oral hygiene revisited briefly

[sharon.manders at gmail.com (Sharon Manders)]

Hi,

I was talking to one of my nurses yesterday and she showed me what she
had set up  to clean the mouth of one of my patients. She told me that
she used to work for an oral surgeon (approx 20 years ago) and that
they had their own way of cleaning people's mouths. (they did
resections of all parts of the jaw, mouth, etc as well as general oral
surgery.)

She had set up a kidney basin with 3 small containers, 1 of 1:1
hydrogen peroxide and H2O, one with mouthwash (not diluted) and 1 with
mineral oil (in that order). She said that the 1st mixture was to help
get a lot of the 'gunk' off, and the mineral oil also helped to loosen
anything else that was in the mouth. (She had no positive things to
say about the use of vaseline in the mouth, which we all know is not a
good idea.)

One of our geriatricians also used to be a nurse and it was she who
first told me about using a 1:1 mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water
to clean a mouth. She showed me during an assessment session in the ER
and it worked really well.

My questions are: Has anyone else come across this combination of
things? And, what are your thoughts on this? I am interested to see
what's actually being used out there in the absence of a 'strict' oral
hygiene protocol/guidelines.

By the way, she did a great job of cleaning out a very thick layer of
the usual gunk.

Thanks in advance,

Sharon

-- 
"Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long
period of time."
 - George Carlin