Oral and dental management of leukemic children

Abstract

Leukemia is the most common malignancy in children which constitutes approximately 30% of all childhood cancers. Leukemia is the malignancy of white blood cells precursors in which the normal marrow elements are replaced by the poorly formed blast cells. Bone marrow transplantation along with a high dose of chemotherapy and radiotherapy is the most accepted treatment for acute leukemias. Leukemic patients suffer from acute complications in the oral cavity and long-term complications in dental and craniofacial development secondary to antineoplastic therapy. This review aims to provide an insight into clinical research evidence available for the management of leukemic patients in the dental office. For review, a search of PubMed and Google Scholar was made with the keywords acute leukemia AND dental management, oral health considerations AND leukemic children, chemotherapy AND acute leukemia, radiotherapy AND acute leukemia. It was supplemented with hand search to identify related published articles in the dental journals.