ORAL MANAGEMENT OF PATIENTS WITH CANCER

Abstract

The oral management of individuals affected by medical conditions, including those with a current cancerdiagnosis, is often complex and as such should be provided by either experienced dentists or dental specialists (e.g. Special Needs Dentists) with adequate training and experience. Patients with cancer needearly dental intervention as the cancer itself or its therapy may place them at increased risk of systemic andoral complications. In Colombia, Special Needs Dentistry (SND) has not been formally recognized as a specialty and doesnot form part of the current dental curricula suggesting a paucity of suitably qualified dentists to providecomplex oral care for oncology patients. While it is accepted that general dentists will provide the bulk ofcare to these individuals, their knowledge base is unclear. This paper aims to improve the knowledge basearound complex SND by addressing the oral complications faced by this patient cohort and how to prioritizetreatment, together with proposing a simple protocol to streamline coordination of care between the dental,allied health and medical teams, that is, through a multidisciplinary approach. It is important to acknowledgethat dentists have a role at all three levels of the multidisciplinary management of canc