Oral Complications after Antineoplastic Treatment in Pediatric Patients

Lee, Yongjin; Kim, Jaehwan; Choi, Namki; Kim, Seonmi

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine dental complications and to evaluate the effects of initial treatment age, treatment modalities, and treatment duration on the disorder after radiation and chemotherapy in pediatric cancer patients. For 93 children with clinical and radiographic data, the number of teeth, the morphology of teeth, the shape of the roots, and development status of the dentition were evaluated. Dental development disorders were found in 61.3% of the children. The mostly found abnormality was root deformity with the prevalence of 31.2%. In children submitted to the therapy before the age of 6, the number of missing teeth (p = 0.029) and microdontia (p = 0.003) were greater compared to the children who started to receive the treatment after the age of 6. The combination of radiation and chemotherapy showed significantly greater incidences of missing teeth (p = 0.030), microdontia (p = 0.046), and root deformity (p = 0.009) when compared with the sole application of chemotherapy. When the children were submitted to anticancer therapy for 18 months or longer duration, greater number of missing teeth (p = 0.032), microdontia (p = 0.011), root deformity (p = 0.025), and total number of teeth affected (p = 0.036) were observed compared with duration less than 18 months. The number of dental abnormalities increased when the children were treated at earlier ages, with combination of radiation and chemotherapy, and for longer period of time.