Late Effect of the Cervical Irradiation on Periodontal Status and Cariogen Flora in Hodgkin Lymphoma Patients

Cervical radiotherapy may leads to elevated caries risk in Hodgkin-lymphoma (HL) patients. Our aim was to estimate the late effect of cervical irradiation on periodontal status in HL patients. Patients filled out query-form, their clinical data were collected, periodontal status was examined, decayed-missing-filled-teeth and periodontal-indexes were calculated. We examined 68 patients who received, 64 patients who did not received cervical radiotherapy and 51 control person. 23.5% of cervical irradiated, 18.15% of not irradiated patients and 17.64% of controls had subjective xerostomia, but it was not objective by sialometry. Mean decayed-missing-filled-teeth-index was 22.53 among irradiated, 21.54 among not irradiated patients while it was 17.23 in control group. Periodontal index was 2.47, 2.42, and 2.14 in different groups. Difference between decayed-missing-filled-teeth indexes of irradiated patients and controls was significant. We have to emphasize the importance of prevention and closer dental observation of HL patients.