Question
Are there any diagnoses that call for specific oral care protocol?
Answer
For patients who are receiving treatment for cancer and have radiation and chemo, they often develop oral lesions. Their physicians will prescribe a specific oral protocol for them. It would probably need to be followed. It is really not too much different than an oral care protocol most patients have except that they may not want to use a toothbrush and may just do swishing. However, I do recommend that as soon as they are able to brush, it is important to brush. Also, if someone has a wired jaw, they may just use a water pik, and that is prescribed by the physician.
Susan Horton MS, CCC-SLP, is a clinical level III Speech Language Pathologist at Maine Medical Center. Susan has over 20 years experience in medical speech pathology as a diagnostician, therapist, and clinical research scientist with specialty in dysphagia across the ages.
