Oral and Dental Late Effects after Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation

Many of the oral and dental sequelae to chemotherapy and radiation are irreversible, and for pediatric cancer patients oral sequelae and discomfort related to their treatment can have long-term consequences. Conditioning for stem cell transplantation (SCT) has been shown to cause more severe disturbances compared to most chemotherapy protocols [1]. On the other hand, efforts that have been made to reduce the intensity of conditioning, for example, use of busulfan for total-body irradiation (TBI) will reduce the prevalence of salivary dysfunction, and dose fractionation of TBI will result in less salivary dysfunction as well as less dental developmental disturbances.