Why should a dental examination be performed before cancer surgery?

Patients with cancer surgery can avoid many post-operative complications if they have a dental exam before.

The likelihood of postoperative pneumonia or death within 30 days after surgery will be reduced if patients are previously examined and treated by dentists, Reuters quoted Japanese researchers' conclusions. Mr. Miho Ishimaru from Tokyo University, the lead author said that dental intervention is beneficial even for patients who use breathing machines.

To reach this conclusion, Mr. Ishimaru and his colleagues analyzed data of 509,000 patients who operated on cancer in the head, neck, esophagus, stomach, lungs, liver, colon, rectum from 2012 to year. 2015. Of these, 81,600 people received pre-operative oral care. About 15,700 people with postoperative pneumonia and 1,700 deaths after 30 days from surgery. The results of the final study showed that dental examination and treatment helped reduce the rate of postoperative pneumonia and mortality by 0.5% and 0.125%, respectively.

In the past, some studies have made similar conclusions but small in size, so they are not really convincing.

Dental visits are almost a mandatory requirement in head and neck cancer.(Photo: FCD).

Mr. Trinh Quoc Dien, Director of Dana Farber / Brigham Center and Chairman of the Prostate Cancer Program (US) commented that the results are very meaningful. However, it is necessary to consider the clinical relevance because the difference is very small.

According to Dr. Sherry Wren from Stanford University and Palo Alto Veterans Hospital, dental visits are almost a mandatory requirement in head and neck cancer because these two parts will be radiotherapy regularly. Like Dr Dien, she did not participate in the study, but focused on the long-term effects of the post-operative pneumonia prevention program.

Ms. Wren and her colleagues discovered cases of pneumonia in the US Veterans Institute, which dropped by 44% after 4 years from the start of the program. The main methods include nursing training, deep cough and breathing control exercises, oral hygiene twice daily, lifting the patient's head and sitting upright in the hospital bed to eat, as well as how to manage the pain. .

Dien concluded that preoperative dental intervention should be considered in complicated cancer treatment surgeries, especially when science has shown a link between pneumonia and postoperative death.