Abstract
Introduction: Contemporary dental care must be comprehensive, aimed not only at dental treatment but also at assessing the patient's health status. In this sense, hospital dentistry is gaining importance in the multidisciplinary health team, which is essential for the therapy and quality of life of hospitalized patients. Objective: A systematic review was carried out to highlight the main functions and importance of the dental surgeon in the hospital environment and intensive care units. Methods: The PRISMA Platform systematic review rules were followed. The search was carried out from January to February 2024 in the Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, Scielo, and Google Scholar databases. The quality of the studies was based on the GRADE instrument and the risk of bias was analyzed according to the Cochrane instrument. Results and Conclusion: A total of 89 articles were found, 45 articles were evaluated in full and 15 were included and developed in the present systematic review study. Considering the Cochrane tool for risk of bias, the overall assessment resulted in 25 studies with a high risk of bias and 31 studies that did not meet GRADE and AMSTAR2. Most studies did not show homogeneity in their results, with X2=75.8%>50%. It was concluded that it is necessary to train and qualify the entire hospital team and the dental surgeon so that oral health is offered to patients, as well as knowing the impact caused by oral problems on the systemic health of patients and implementing specific protocols on the subject in all aspects. The dentist must promote the general health of the hospitalized individual, based on interdisciplinary planning developed together with other health professionals, as well as assess the patient's main needs and contribute to the quality of life of these individuals. According to the literature consulted, we can conclude how important the role of the dentist is as an integral part of the multidisciplinary healthcare team in ICU, as their presence could minimize such problems in hospitalized patients. Its insertion in hospitals would contribute to the maintenance of the patient's oral and general health, as well as the use of appropriate procedures during their hospitalization.