The caries experience and dentistry following evaluation of children submitted to antineoplastic therapy

Aim: To evaluate the caries experience and the dentistry following of children submitted to antineoplastic therapy of a reference Hospital to this type of treatment in Para state, Brazil. Material and Methods: The sample consisted of 46 children. It was included children in the ages of 2 to 12 years diagnosed with cancer that would be submitted to chemotherapy treatment. The evaluation was performed before the chemotherapy treatment and consisted of anamnesis and oral clinical examination. In order to decrease the interexaminer diagnosis variability and increase the data surveys confidentiality, a previous training and calibration was performed before the beginning of the examination. Results: There was a higher prevalence of childish cancer among male gender children. The age group more affected was between 8 to 12 years. There was a bigger percentage of patients that didn't go to the dentist before the chemotherapy treatment. The children caries experience was evaluated by the CPO-D and medium Ceo-d indexes, obtaining respectively the values of 4,75 and 0,47. Conclusions: The initial caries experience was high comparing to the international and Brazil average. Most of researched children didn't have a previous dentistry care before the beginning of antineoplastic therapy.

Oral Manifestations and Salivary pH Changes in Children undergoing Antineoplastic Therapy

Objective: To identify the oral manifestations and salivary pH before and after chemotherapy in pediatric patients. Material and Methods: The sample consisted of 46 children. It was included children from 2 to 12 years, diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and they would be subjected to chemotherapy. The first evaluation was performed before chemotherapy and consisted of anamnesis, oral clinical examination and saliva collection to measure the pH. The second evaluation was performed among 10 to 15 days after the start of chemotherapy treatment and consisted of new saliva collection and clinical examination. Results: The results showed that the gender most affected by childhood cancer was male. The predominant age group were children aged 8-12 years. The most frequent oral manifestations were mucositis (35%), xerostomia (26%), toothache and dysphagia (22%). There was also a significant reduction in salivary pH after chemotherapy, p <0.0001, indicating that the average pre and post chemotherapy are different (Δ = 10.6) with statistical significance at the 5% level. Conclusion: Patients with ALL can present any lesion in the oral cavity during or after the start of chemotherapy and undergo changes in the amount of salivary pH. The dentist needs and know the oral manifestations and intervene in the oral health of patients with ALL, contributing and assisting in their treatment.