Clinical Impact of Perioperative Oral/Dental Care on Cancer Surgery Outcomes

Perioperative oral/dental care has been introduced to cancer surgery patients as perioperative management using a multimodal approach. Several approaches were tested for managing perioperative oral/dental health care in this population. However, while the clinical impact of perioperative oral/dental care on patients with various types of malignancies has been evaluated, most previous studies have used and evaluated data obtained from relatively small sample sizes of fewer than 200 patients from individual institutions. Therefore, the recommendation of perioperative oral/dental care is controversial. Recent studies have shown that perioperative oral/dental care affects the cancer surgery outcomes. In addition, perioperative oral/dental care by dentistry professionals and the number of oral/dental care sessions have been shown to be important for this beneficial effect, even when patients were temporarily intubated. Further studies are, therefore, necessary to establish the optimal perioperative dental/oral care regiment and verify the beneficial effect of perioperative oral/dental care on cancer surgery outcomes. This review summarizes the background, current status, and future perspectives of perioperative oral/dental care for cancer surgery.