Clinical aspects and prevention of oral mucositis - Review.

Abstract

The term oral mucositis emerged in 1980, defined as soft tissue inflammation induced by systemic toxicity caused by cancer chemotherapy, which causes the injury in the basal cell of oral mucosa. The presence of this lesion reduces the quality of life and nutritional status of the patients, increasing their degree of morbidity and interfering with cancer treatment. Before these factors, it is important to stress the needing for development of preventive methods, mainly characterized by simple techniques such as standardized oral hygiene, regular mouthwash with chlorhexidine gluconate 0,12% and applications of low intensity laser therapy. The preventive methods have different results in the scientific literature, all of which act on the important factors in the cause and exacerbation of oral mucositis with inflammatory cytokines and secondary bacterial infections. The dentists, from the scientific literature reported is one of the first professionals to diagnose oral mucositis and should increase their knowledge, working in the hospitals environment such as Oncological Services and offering preventive methods. Key words: oral mucositis; preventive methods; oncology; dental hospital