2025 Volume 71 Issue 3 Pages 115-119
Otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery and dental and oral surgery are anatomically and physiologically similar. Collaboration with dental surgery is essential for the perioperative management of the oral function when treating head and neck cancer and dental infections, such as odontogenic maxillary sinusitis. In the present study, we investigated the specific diseases associated with otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery and dental and oral surgery at Kyushu Medical Center. A total of 150 patients were referred for otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery or dental and oral surgery, and 29 of them (15 males and 14 females; mean age 59.1 years old) were referred from dental surgery to otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery. Of these, nine cases were referred for suspected malignancy, five for suspected parotid gland, four for arthrodesis for odontogenic maxillary sinusitis, three for chronic sinusitis, two for metal ingestion, and one each for chronic sinusitis, metal misuse, postoperative maxillary cyst, ear discomfort, abnormal pharyngeal sensation, suspected necrosis of the external auditory canal, soft palate ulcer, and hyperaccumulation of thyroid on fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography. Conversely, 121 patients were referred from otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery to dental surgery (71 males and 50 females, mean age 62.2 years old), including 51 patients for perioperative oral function management, 55 with dental infection, 12 with dental diseases other than infection, and 1 case each of fracture of the anterior wall of the external auditory canal, follow-up observation after removal of a maxillary foreign body, and pemphigus vulgaris. There have been cases in which patients were diagnosed by a dentist but had dental problems, so it is necessary for otorhinolaryngologists to have knowledge of dental diseases.
