Stomatological complications and comprehensive oral care of post-menopausal patients undergoing breast cancer treatment

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the widespread diseases all over the world. Breast cancer is the leading variant of cancer among females. Oral diseases are potentially thought to be relevant to systemic disease. Surgical approaches lumpectomy, partial mastectomy along with post surgical radiotherapy (RT) or chemotherapy (CT) is the mainstream gold standard treatment of breast cancer. But unfortunately RT/CT comes with some unavoidable stomatological complications especially in post menopausal age. There are many studies found some definite oral complications during the treatment periods of breast cancer therapy like sore mouth, mucositis, salivary gland dysfunctions, dysguesia, dysesthesia, cervical caries, periodontitis, alveolar bone loss, opportunistic infections, and osteoradionecrosis etc. Obtained from present knowledge available, different oral complications are discussed like proper oral hygiene (both professional and domiciliary), pretreatment prophylaxis, appropria te diet, periodontal check up, fluoride varnish, salivary substitutes which minimize the chance to develop complications. Certain measures are to be taken at pretreatment and post treatment sessions in order to prevent possible complications. We will try to discuss the possible oral complications and way outs in the article.