Palliative Care: Overview of Mouth Care at the End of Life.

Patients at the end of life are susceptible to a range of oral complications, including pain, salivary gland dysfunction, dysphagia, and oromucosal infections [ 1,2 ]. The oral cavity may be a site of treatment-related side effects in terminally ill patients or may be compromised by the effects of progressive, advanced disease [ 3,4 ].

This topic provides an overview of the importance of oral health in patients at the end of life as well as and the diagnosis and management of common oral complications. A more extensive discussion of swallowing disorders in palliative care patients is provided elsewhere, as is stomatitis/mucositis related to cancer treatment.