Radioterapia de cabeça e pescoço: alterações orais e cuidados no tratamento odontológico

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to gather and analyze the main changes that the radiotherapy of head and neck brings to the oral cavity in general, emphasizing the pulp and the endodontic treatment, explaining the difficulties of performing an endodontic treatment in these patients and which care the dentist surgeon should take when treating them. The databases used were Pubmed / Medline, Scielo, LILACS and BIREME. The descriptors and expressions used during searches in the databases were: dental pulp and radioteraphy, radiotherapy and endodontics and pulp vitaliy. A total of 193 articles were found, being used for the present study only 21, according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and manually added four articles found in the bibliographies of other articles. As conclusion, it was observed that patients submitted to head and neck radiotherapy suffer from adverse effects including mucositis, xerostomia, osteorradionecrosis, radiation caries and trismus, such changes cause physiological difficulties that interfere in the dental treatment of these patients, thus necessitating including following clinical recommendations that meet their needs. Regarding pulp tissue, it was seen that the decrease in blood flow and oxygen saturation are temporary and reversible.