Dental News - Study evaluates prosthetic rehabilitation in head and neck cancer patients

Dental Tribune International

Thu. 3. September 2015

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark: Radiation therapy and ablative surgery, the primary treatment for head and neck cancer, often leave patients’ orofacial functions majorly impaired and can have side-effects, such as salivary hypofunction, taste disturbances and pathology of the masticatory muscles. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have now analysed whether different prosthetic reconstructions improve oral function and therefore affect patients’ self-perceived oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL).

In the study, OHRQoL was evaluated using the Oral Health Impact Profile questionnaire (OHIP-49). In order to compare treatment outcomes, the researchers analysed OHRQoL scores of 43 patients aged 42–84 who had been treated with radiation therapy and/or ablative surgery, before and after oral rehabilitation.

Aiming to measure whether impairments were improved by different methods and whether patients’ OHRQoL changed through oral rehabilitation treatment, the researchers compared fixed and removable prostheses with and without implants.

Overall, the data showed that oral rehabilitation resulted in better appearance and masticatory function and therefore induced significant improvement in OHRQoL. Thirty-nine of the 43 patients surveyed had lower OHIP scores after treatment, dropping from a mean of 77 points to 40 points, the study found.

However, when comparing fixed versus removable prostheses, no significant effect on patients’ OHIP-scores was found. The same applied to the effect of implants. Patients treated with implants did not differ significantly in OHIP change from patients without implant-supported prostheses.

According to the researchers, the results may have been affected by the limited sample size and great variation between the patients in the study. Future research will have to include a greater patient sample in order to demonstrate significant benefits of implants, they concluded.

The study, titled “Oral prosthetic rehabilitation with and without implants after radiation therapy and ablative surgery”, was published on 25 August in the Prosthodontics and Maxillofacial Prosthetics special issue of the International Journal of Dentistry and Oral Science.

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