Good oral health can prevent or reduce the severity of oral toxicities in cancer therapies.
Do you receive or have received in the past cancer therapy? See why you should Keep your mouth clean and healthy! In the Editorial, published in the Journal ORAL, Professor Nicolatou-Galitis describes how with clean and healthy mouth, we may have few or even not at all dental and oral problems either during or after treatments [1].
Dry mouth, which can appear after radiotherapy to the mouth, head and neck, affects our diet, speech, sleep, and, in general, our daily routine and quality of life. People who did not receive and did not follow oral hygiene instructions, after 5 years had many cavities and other serious problems with their teeth. These oral problems can cause difficulties even at work. Pain in the mouth, numbness, changes in taste have been described by patients during treatment as "the battle to eat".
Tooth loss has, also, been linked to chemotherapy and some hormonal therapies. More recent treatments in Oncology have also been linked to the appearance of painful sores, bleeding gums, or even necrosis of the jaws. These problems can be avoided when the mouth is clean and healthy!
In a study, it was found that when we are aware of the above problems, and have been trained by our dentist to perform proper oral care, we will have less toxicities. Even children, who participated in special educational programs, had a 30% reduction of stomatitis!
Check out the Editorial, which we wrote for all of you with great pleasure and enriched it with pleasant images!
Professor Ourania Nicolatou-Galitis, Scientific Responsible of CureCancer - mycancer.gr, had the great honor of being invited as a Guest Editor in the Section "Oral Health Management for Special Care Patients" in collaboration with fellow professors from Japan, Guest Editors Prof. Dr. Hiromitsu Morita and Dr. Yoko Iwase-Saito.
[1] Nicolatou-Galitis O. Good oral health can prevent or reduce the severity of oral toxicities in cancer therapies. Editorial, Oral 2023, 3, 487-489. https://doi.org/10.3390/oral13040039.
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