EFEITOS A MÉDIO PRAZO DA RADIOTERAPIA NA DENSIDADE ÓSSEA DOS MAXILARES DE PACIENTES COM CÂNCER DE CABEÇA E PESCOÇO

Abstract

The present study had the objective of verifying if the treatment with ionizing rays given to patients with head and neck cancer could provoke medium-term changes in bone density of jaws. The sample covered twelve patients in treatment at the Radioteraphy Service of Araújo Jorge Hospital, in Goiânia city, Goiás, in the period of April of 2005 to January of 2006. To evaluate the risk factors associated to bone changes, the amostral population answered partly open questionnaires about their medical and oral health. The patients were submitted to oral clinic examinations and then directed to computerized tomography in the region of maxilla and mandible. All of them had malignant tumors of orophaynx and, after tomographies, were treated from injuries and lymphatic nodules with association of radio and chemotherapy. The radiation doses of the external beam ranged from 5000 to 7000 rad, in accordance with the staging of injury. After 127 to 266 days of the therapy with ionizing radiation, the sample was sent to a second computerized tomography exam in the region of jaws. The results of this inquiry had demonstrated that, in this interval of time, radiotherapy did not unchain qualitative alterations in the jaw bones that could be identificated. So, dental procedures or orthopedic and traumatologic surgeries, in mediumterm, are not contraindicated to patients treated with radiotherapy.