Medical Technology And The Dental Practice - 2270 Words

Introduction: Advances in medical technology, along with immunosuppressive drugs, have extended the lives of transplant patients making them more common in the dental practice.1,2,3 Patients that require organ transplantation are ones with advanced cardiac and coronary artery disease, leukemia, bone marrow transplantation, end stage renal disease, immune deficiency syndromes, advanced liver diseases and diabetes mellitus.4,5 All transplant patients will be treated with immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of their lives.1,6 These drugs are used to prevent acute rejection, to preserve their immunity with the least possible alteration and to allow the acceptance of the transplant.1 However, these drugs will compromise the patients’ health†¦show more content†¦oral candidiasis) have a lower incidence when compared to bacterial or viral infections, but they have the highest mortality rate.1 One of the main drugs used as an immunosuppressant is Cyclosporine.7 Long term use of Cyclospori ne is associated with gingival hyperplasia.1,2 It is usually located on the interdental papilla of the labial gingiva and can lead to increased risk of infections, caries and periodontal disease because it can interfere with the patient’s oral hygiene.1 Bacterial plaque, bleeding and calculus must be assessed before administration of immunosuppressant drugs since it will increase the likelihood of gingival hyperplasia.7 Cyclosporine induced gingival hyperplasia can be treated with better oral hygiene techniques, removal of plaque-retentive factors and possibly metronidazole.1,4 The incidence of developing malignancies after transplantation increases with time.7The most frequently seen malignancies in the dental setting are epithelia dysplasia, squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, lymphoma, Kasposi’s sarcoma, cervical carcinoma, and human papilloma.7 Periodontal disease plays a role in