The effect of radiotherapy on dental hard tissue—a systematic review

Abstract

This article is written to understand more about the cause of destruction of teeth after radiotherapy. This way, a more adequate preventive and restorative treatment plan can be drawn up for an individual patient.

ATR-FTIR Assessment of the Biochemical Composition and Micro Hardness of the Hard Tissues of Oral Cavity Submitted to Gamma Irradiation

“…According to the recent literature [14][15][16] dentin was the greatest hard tissue injured because of a major destruction by gamma radiation, considering as a mean factor, its organic composition, and water higher content than other hard tissues, besides other local factors like proteinases and metálo-proteinases activated during the destructive and protein degradation process. In this study, root dentin showed a lower rate injured than enamel, agreed with several previous studies [15][16][17][18][19] with a specific dose threshold (doses up to 30 Gy), whose demonstrated greater hardness enamel loss than in higher doses. Nevertheless, results obtained in this study regarding enamel microhardness values would require further accurate assessment and consequently more studies will been carried out about direct and isolated effect of gamma radiation.…”

“…After surface microhardness analysis, before and after gamma irradiation, our results showed a considerable decrease in enamel and root dentin hardness, corresponding to the results obtained by other studies [14,[16][17][18].…”

“…Some studies [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] report unfavorable results in the tissues of oral cavity with greater organic content after radiotherapy treatment; however, it is necessary to analyze the amount of mineral loss that occurs in the hard tissues submitted to gamma irradiation [22].…”

The Effect of Radiotherapy on Dental Pulp Status in Patients With Head and Neck Cancer: A Systematic Review.

“…The aim of these improvements is to increase the therapeutic results and to reduce the negative side effects, due to the irradiation of the surrounding oral tissues and organs (22). Two types of devices are used in radiotherapy of head and neck malifnant tumors: 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-RT) or Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).…”

Effect of Gamma Radiation on Mechanical Properties of Tooth Structure

“…This complication is a complex and destructive disease that causes severe destruction of the tooth enamel and dentin in head and neck-irradiated patients [5,7,8] and has negative effects on their quality of life [8] . Scientific evidence indicates that patients incur a lifelong risk of developing radiation caries following radiation therapy [7] .The effects of radiation therapy on the onset and progression of a caries lesion might be direct or indirect [8] .The indirect effects of irradiation include changes in the quality and quantity of saliva, difficulty in performing proper oral hygiene, increased intake of cariogenic foods,and changes in the oral microbiota [5,7,9] . Radiation therapy may also exert direct effects on the dental structure,including changes in the crystalline structure, enamel and dentin microhardness, dentinoenamel junction, and acid solubility of the enamel; these effects might be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease [6,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] .…”