Oral health status of patients with multiple myeloma

OBJECTIVE: To describe the oral health status of patients with multiple myeloma and compare to a control group. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical history of the studied subjects was obtained from the medical records and through interviews. Trained examiners evaluated the oral mucosa, teeth, periodontium and imaging aspects. The dental status was evaluated by the decayed, missing and filled teeth index. The presence of bone lesions was investigated with cone beam computer tomography images of the jaws. RESULTS: The most common oral mucosa features were paleness (31%) and coated tongue (14.3%) in the multiple myeloma group (N = 42); and coated (21.4%) and fissured tongue (10.7%) in the control group (N = 28). The mean DMFT index of patients with multiple myeloma was high, but not significantly different from controls (14.57 versus 19.69, p = 0.975). Hypodense lesions suggestive of multiple myeloma were observed in the jaws of 73.8% of the patients. Hypodense lesions related to teeth were detected in 33.3% of the patients and in 53.6% of the controls (p = 0.832). CONCLUSIONS: The studied population of multiple myeloma patients presented many oral health issues that needed attention. Thus, oral care should be included in the routine treatment to improve the quality of the oral status in these patients.