Oral Health in Children Under Oncological Treatment

Method: cross-sectional study on children (n=50) with cancer diagnosis and treated with radiotherapy (R) and/or chemotherapy (Ch) since 0.1 to 13 years of age, during 6 months whose treatment has finished one year before the study, according to schedule of PINDA protocol, both genders, aged 3-15 years. The oral hygiene (OH) was assessed according the simplified Greene, and Vermillion index criteria.

Result: 46% (n=23) of the children had acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) (χ² test, p-value=0.5716), and 83.33% (n=20) of these were treated with chemotherapy (Ch). The rest of the children (54%; 27) suffered another kind of cancer. Eighteen percentages of children with diagnosis of ALL and 80% of children with another kind of cancer were treated with both chemotherapy and radiotherapy (Ch&R) (χ² test, p-value=0.039). It was observed that around an average of 70% of the children with cancer and treated with Ch&R o Ch presented a bad OH (χ² test, p-value=0.000). It was observed a high percentage (70-80%) of children with low DMF (χ² test /Ch, p-value=0.001; χ² test /Ch&R, p-value=0.0201).  

Conclusion: our results showed that DMF index is low in children under chemotherapy or combination with radiotherapy. The children included in this study are not under treatment at the clinical dentistry exam; the literature has reported that this index was highest in children during the maintenance phase of the chemotherapy followed by the induction therapy with radiotherapy and induction therapy phases. In addition bad OH is presented in highest percentage; other studies showed that the dental status of long-term children cancer survivors is worse than in controls. We concluded that is necessary to monitor their dental growth and oral health in children cancer under radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy treatment.