Researchers have found an inexpensive tool that may help reduce rates of pneumonia for hospitalized patients — and it comes with bristles on one end. A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute examined whether daily toothbrushing among hospitalized patients is associated with lower rates of hospital-acquired pneumonia and other outcomes. The team combined the results of 15 randomized clinical trials that included more than 2,700 patients and found that hospital-acquired pneumonia rates were lower among patients who received daily toothbrushing compared to those who did not. The results were especially compelling among patients on mechanical ventilation. Their results are published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
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