Thickened Drinks and Oral Nutritional Supplements as Potential Reservoirs of Oral Microorganisms: Microbial Assays In Vitro.

Oral hygiene is difficult to achieve for frail older adults. Aging, chronic diseases, polypharmacy, mouth-washes, and crushed drugs can contribute to uncontrolled proliferation and microbial deposits in the mouth. Looking for avoidable risk factors, in vitro microbial survival or proliferation in thickened drinks and oral nutritional supplements (ONS) was investigated.