Evaluation of oral health and dental conditions in pediatric patients with a history of chemotherapy

Oral complications occurring before, during, and after chemotherapy may adversely affect nutrition, infection risk, treatment tolerance, and quality of life in children with cancer. This cross-sectional study aimed primarily to describe oral-health problems and care practices in pediatric oncology patients with current or previous chemotherapy exposure, and secondarily to explore associations between selected oral findings and treatment-related variables.This descriptive cross-sectional study included 92 patients followed in a pediatric hematology clinic who were currently receiving chemotherapy or had previously completed chemotherapy. The sample included children and adolescents as well as young adults who continued follow-up within pediatric oncology services because their cancer had been diagnosed and treated during childhood; this was retained to reflect survivorship-related oral findings within the same care pathway. Oral-health information was collected using a parent-child questionnaire and review of clinical records. Oral findings in the present study were not recorded using standardized indices such as DMFT/dmft, OHI-S, gingival index, WHO mucositis grading, or the Oral Assessment Guide; this limitation is explicitly acknowledged. Statistical analyses were primarily exploratory and included descriptive analyses and bivariate comparisons.The median age of the participants was 12 years, and the mean age at initiation of chemotherapy was 6.52 years. Of the participants, 16.3% were actively receiving chemotherapy and 83.7% had completed treatment; 35.9% were female and 64.1% were male. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia was the most common diagnosis (63%). Dental visits before cancer treatment were uncommon (15.2%), and oral complaints were frequent, including oral lesions (62.2%), xerostomia (48.9%), gingival problems (45.7%), dental pain (43.5%), halitosis (39.1%), taste alteration (37.0%), and oral fungal infection (33.7%). The findings support the need for structured oral-health assessment, early dental referral, preventive counseling, and multidisciplinary follow-up before, during, and after chemotherapy. However, given the cross-sectional design, self-reported components, and absence of standardized oral assessment indices, the results should be interpreted as descriptive and hypothesis-generating rather than causal.