Oral health and health care in female sex workers: concomitant quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Sex workers, including female ones, have a higher risk of developing cancer and oral diseases due to the overlapping of risk factors. To characterize oral health status and healthcare practices and behaviors in female sex workers. Both quantitative and qualitative concomitant approaches were used. A closed-ended questionnaire, clinical examination, and semi-structured interview were administered, from July 2017 to August 2018, to 21 intentionally selected participants, in the city of Itajaí, southern Brazil. Although the participants reported having good oral health and healthcare habits, some oral diseases and harmful habits were observed. Poor oral hygiene and habits such as smoking, alcohol, and illicit drug use were found. Most of the participants had undergone gynecological follow-up in the last 12 months. Qualitative analysis gave rise to six categories: Social aspects of working as a sex worker, Work routine, Sexual practices and behaviors and protection from sexually transmitted infections, Practices and behaviors (including unprotected sun exposure, smoking, and alcohol use at work), Use of illicit drugs at work, and General and oral health care and perceptions about their oral health. Oral health status of the participants was variable, and most of them smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol, and consumed illicit drugs at work. Preventive condom use was reported. Most of them underwent recent serological tests for sexual diseases and gynecological follow-up, incentivized by the community health workers that facilitate access to public services.

Impact of leukemia and lymphoma chemotherapy on oral cavity and quality of life.

This study aimed to understand how patients perceive their oral health and the resulting oral manifestations of antineoplastic chemotherapy, as well as to analyze the impact of these alterations on oral health-related quality of life. A total of 80 patients undergoing treatment participated in this study. A questionnaire was applied using the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) index and open interviews. Items with the highest impact prevalence included "worsened taste of food sensation" (35.00%), "discomfort in eating food" (20.00%), and "feeling stressed" (17.50%). The outpatients showed the highest prevalence scores, whereas the inpatients presented higher quality of life impact severity. The ways in which the patients perceived how their oral alteration affected their quality of life were distinct and subjective. It is important that dentists act together with a multiprofessional team developing strategies to alleviate the impact of the disease and chemotherapy on oral cavity and patients' quality of life.