Clinical Investigation of Perioperative Oral Management of Head and Neck Cancer Patients at Showa University Fujigaoka Hospital

Abstract

We examined the effect of perioperative oral function management for 60 head and neck cancer patients （50 males, 10 females） who were treated by chemotherapy and radiation from April 2012 to October 2015 in the otolaryngology department. The patients’ ages ranged from 34 to 81 years old and the most frequent type of cancer was laryngeal cancer （34％）. Twenty-four of these patients （48％） required dental treatment before their cancer treatment and we provided care to more than 90％ of them. The average number of dental visits per patient was 10.
The majority of patients showed decreased saliva after starting the treatment. However, they also showed improved plaque control and a decrease in the number of oral bacteria.
This study suggests that perioperative oral function management for these patients contributed to the successful completion of their cancer treatment by decreasing the side effects of the treatment.