Dental management in Oncology patient: osteonecrosis related osteonecrosis of the Jaw (MRONJ)

Abstract

It is essential that oncological patients treated with antiresorptives or antiangiogenic drugs diagnosed Medication Related Osteonecrosis of the Jaw (MRONJ) must be treated in an interdisciplinary fashion. The patient’s stomatognathic system should be examined preventatively prior to the initiation of antiresorptive drugs in order to avoid pathological buccal manifestations, following the same healthcare clinical protocols used for patients receiving head and neck radiotherapy. Additionally, patients should be informed of the precautions to be taken, including regular dental appointments for oral health assessment. The risk of developing MRONJ should be evaluated according to the type of antiresorptives or antiangiogenic drugs administered and treatment duration. In the case of MRONJ, its fundamental characteristic is positioned in the biochemical particularity of the pharmacokinetic expression of antiresorptive drugs, reversibly (DS) or irreversibly (BPs) inhibiting the functionality of the osteoclast. Therefore, the consideration of invading bone tissue as little as possible and performing resective therapies in cases of systemic infectious spread follows, since its long-term resolution would not be effective because the drug (BPs) has frank accumulation at a distance, a characteristic used by treating doctors and it would not have clinical relevance to suggest its suspension. According to the recommendations of AAOMS; Task Force and AOCMF coincide with the sharing of consensus on minimally invasive manipulations once the necrotic foci have been installed and the preventive attitude prevails of eliminating all septic foci prophylactically before starting therapy with antiresorptive drugs. There are positions with a trend more committed to frank bone manipulation with the aim of evacuating the infectious problem and other more conservative positions in order not to expand drug necrosis volumetrically due to bone accumulation of BPs or DS.