Pediatric leukemia: the role of the medical dentist – a narrative review

• Autor(a) principal: Le Roux, Louis
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10284/11639
• topic: Pediatric leukemia; Leukemia oral complications; Acute lymphoblastic leukemia; Pediatric leukemia and dentistry; Leucemia pediátrica; Complicações orais da leucemia; Leucemia linfoblástica aguda; Leucemia pediátrica e medicina dentária; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Médicas::Medicina Clínica

The most common form of pediatric leukemia is Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia affecting B cell proliferation. Oral complications of this type of cancer can occur even before the disease is diagnosed and the dentist should be aware of the first signs like mouth ulcers, mucositis, xerostomia, opportunistic infections, gingival bleeding and others. The oral impact of the disease is dependent of the child`s age - dentition development and orofacial growth but studies reveal that there is a high prevalence of mucositis, xerostomia, disguesia, gingival bleeding, caries and Candidiasis. The oral cavity should be evaluated before treatment - chemo/radiotherapy to minimize further complications, reducing pain and eliminating potential sources of infection. All the procedures of the medical dentist are done accordingly to the different stages of the disease and his approach can contribute to the child's better quality of life always acting jointly with a multidisciplinar team of treatment.