I have been advised to have nil by mouth pre surgery. Does this mean I shouldn't brush my teeth?

i wouldn't see why not, as long as you dont swallow any of it you should be just fineI have been advised to have nil by mouth pre surgery. Does this mean I shouldn't brush my teeth?
Hello,





(ANS) ';Nil by mouth'; literally means NOTHING should pass through or into your mouth before surgery. This is important %26amp; really means you must NOT eat or drink anything prior to the surgery, this is totally 100% normal and ALL patients are given this advise.





**especially important if you are under going gastric surgery.





**Eating %26amp; drinking uses up energy for digestion that the body needs in order to cope with the surgery %26amp; then the healing process. This is one reason people are asked not to consume anything before the operation.





Kind Regards Ivan.I have been advised to have nil by mouth pre surgery. Does this mean I shouldn't brush my teeth?
What I was told, years ago, was that I could aspirate (breathe) what was in my stomach and it would either cause an infection, cause me to choke/convulse and stop breathing, or cause pneumonia.





Brushing my teeth was allowed and with a few early show times (5AM and 7AM) for surgery Ican assure you that I (or my family members) were in bed well before midnight.





This is a really good article from a Professor (not me) in Asia and covers what has already been said by the others (and by me) in much greater detail


http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?鈥?/a>





the anesthesiologist will instruct you to have nothing per orem at least six hours before surgery, the reason why an empty stomach is required is because os Mendelsons syndrome ( aka aspiration pneumonia )... during induction of general anesthesia there is a short period where the airway is unprotected if there is reflux of gastric contents, this occurs after the patient has slept and before the trachea is intubated ( tube in airway ),,, nothing per orem, antacids are some of the things we do do to lessen the risk of aspiration, even when regional anesthesia is contemplated the patient is still advised to be NPO ( nothing per orem ) 6-8 hours before surgery, sedation may be required in which case airway may be unprotected... in emergency situations wherein surgery may be required and the patient has a full stomach, we do what we call a ( RSI ) rapid sequence induction and intubation, in this case the time frame wherein the airway is unprotected is much shorter... i guess your next question would be why not do RSI all the time ? in RSI, there is still a risk of aspiration, furthermore, RSI carries with it an inherent risk because your induction time is rendered shorted the anesthetic is not as deep as one one have when doing a '; normal '; induction... attenuation of laryngeal responses to intubation ( tube in trachea ) are not blunted enough, may cause spasm of the airway, very high increases in high rate ( detrimental especially to patients with myocardial ischemia ) ...etc... however, the benefit you get when doing RSI in patients with full stomachs far outweights its negative effects...





PS ; somebody cited a journal where physicians where feeding patients before surgery, pls read that article carefully, those patients were undergoing surgery under LOCAL anesthesia...
The idea is that you have nothing in your stomach, to prevent you possibly being sick under anaesthetic. Cleaning your teeth is fine, as is using mouthwash, you don't swallow it do you?
You鈥檒l need to refrain from anything that causes salivation so it is perfectly OK to brush your teeth on the morning of the operation but just remember not to swallow any of the water.



You can brush your teeth and rinse your mouth. Not the end of the world if you end up swallowing a little water while doing so, but don't drink a glass of it.
You can brush your teeth but do not swallow any of the liquid. Hope your op goes all right
No of course not. You don't want to go to the dentist with un-brushed teeth. Good luck.
no!





you can still brush your teeth, as long as you don't eat any toothpaste.