Oral health assessment and mouth care for children and young people receiving palliative care. Part two.

This is the second part of a two-part article on oral health assessment and mouth care for children and young people receiving palliative care. This article covers basic oral hygiene and management of oral health problems: oral candidiasis, coated tongue/dirty mouth, dry mouth, hypersalivation, ulceration, painful mouth, stomatitis and mucositis. The article also covers treating patients who are immunocompromised and the need to educate families and carers in the basic principles of oral care, including the importance of preventing cross-infection. Part one outlined oral assessment and discussed the adaptation of the Nottingham Oral Health Assessment Tool (Freer 2000).