Trismus and oral health conditions during diagnosis of malignant oral neoplasms

• Autor(a) principal: Martins,Cinthia A.
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Goldenberg,Dov C., Narikawa,Rita, Kowalski,Luiz P.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1808-86942020000500552
• topic: Trismus; Maximal mouth opening; Oral cancer; Edentulous; Oral health

Abstract Introduction: Trismus has been considered a late complication of cancer treatment. It can occur prior to treatment, mainly caused by tumor invasion or muscle spasms induced by the presence of the tumor. Objective: In this study, we evaluated the incidence of trismus and its effect on oral health in patients with malignant neoplasms of the oral cavity before performing the cancer treatment. Methods: This review was carried out via interviews, visual clinical inspection and objective measurement of maximal mouth opening in 35 consecutive patients. Trismus was defined as a maximal mouth opening <35 mm. Results: Trismus was observed in 15 patients, with a total incidence of 42%. A high rate of tooth loss was recorded, and trismus association with tooth loss was statistically verified using the Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests, the t-student test and Mann-Whitney non-parametric test. All tests were performed at p < 0.05. Conclusion: Edentulous patients are eight times more likely to have trismus compared to patients that are partially and fully dentate. Trismus was demonstrated to be correlated with tooth loss; however other oral health conditions were not shown to be a modifying factor.