Importance of oral health and dental treatment in organ transplant recipients

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to investigate which peri-transplant dental treatments were deemed necessary, and to determine retrospectively how often these treatments were actually performed, in patients who had received organ transplants.

Materials and methods: Medical records of the Department of Advanced General Dentistry at Yonsei University Dental Hospital were searched to identify liver or kidney transplant recipients who attended from 1st March 2014 to 31st December 2017. A total of 418 patients were identified, and their medical charts were reviewed. Sex, underlying systemic disease, oral hygiene status, dental treatment deemed necessary, dental treatment actually performed and durations of follow-up were tabulated.

Results: More than half (53.8%) of the liver transplant recipients had poor oral hygiene, and poor oral hygiene was statistically significantly more prevalent in the liver transplant group than in the kidney transplant group (40.3%). In liver recipients in whom scaling was deemed to be required pre-transplant, the rate of it actually being performed pre-transplant was high (83.2%). By contrast, the rates of tooth extraction and prosthetic treatment actually being performed pre-transplant were low (12.8% and 0%, respectively). In kidney recipients, the rates of scaling, tooth extraction and prosthetic treatment actually performed pre-transplant, when deemed to be required, were 93.5%, 10.0% and 0.0%, respectively.

Conclusions: We recommend that patients scheduled to receive an organ transplant be referred to a dental clinic as soon as possible beforehand, to remove any potential sources of oral infection. Educating physicians, as well as their patients, about the importance of early dental screening and pre-transplant dental treatment is essential.