ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Chemotherapy and Oral Health in Leukemic
Patients
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Chair and Department of Conservative Dentistry with Endodontics, Medical University of Lublin, Poland
Submission date: 2019-09-06
Final revision date: 2019-11-07
Acceptance date: 2019-11-14
Online publication date: 2020-03-23
Publication date: 2020-05-12
Corresponding author
Maja Ptasiewicz
CHAIR AND DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATIVE DENTISTRY WITH ENDODONTICS, MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF LUBLIN, KARMELICKA 7, 20-081, LUBLIN, Poland
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2020;29(5):3263-3271
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ABSTRACT
Leukemias are neoplastic diseases originating from the hematopoietic system and may be generally
divided into acute and chronic forms. Dental treatment of patients with leukemia should be planned on
the basis of antineoplastic therapy, which can be chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy and bone
marrow transplantation. This is an orginal study with a sample of 102 adolescents evaluated before and
after chemotherapy. Within oral mucosa of the examined patients ulcerations and gingival hyperplasia
were the most frequently observed. These are typical disorders of the oral mucosa that occur in
leukemia. The decrease in the number of red blood cells and hemoglobin predisposes to pathological
changes within the oral mucosa. Pathological changes within the oral mucosa were also observed more
often in patients after chemotherapy who had decreased immunity assessed on the basis of a white
blood cell count. It is concluded in this paper that dental treatment in relation to hematological indices
presented by patients with leukemia must follow certain protocols, mainly related to white and red
blood cells or platelet counts, and the presence of the dentist in a multidisciplinary team is required
for the health care of such patients. Lukemic patients require permanent dental control. It can mitigate
pathological processes in the oral cavity related to the disease and its treatment. Such an approach will
help prevent local complications also affecting patients’ general condition.