Impact of oral comorbidities on incarcerated women: an integrative review

INTRODUCTION: Oral health care directly impacts the well-being of incarcerated women. It is related to the quality of life, social and economic discrepancies and lack of access to programs that offer free dental services and health promotion for this population. OBJECTIVES: This work aimed to understand oral health challenges faced by women incarcerated in Brazil and worldwide. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The following databases were selected: EMBASE, (Virtual Health Library=LILACS+BDENF), Scielo, Scopus, Cochrane-Library and the PubMed search engine. These databases were searched until the closing date of October 2021 with no time limit for the searches. The key words used in the searches were “incarceration”, “prison”, “woman”, and “oral health”. RESULTS: Caries, periodontal disease, tooth pain, and the use of dental prostheses were the most prevalent oral health conditions amongst incarcerated women in Brazil and worldwide. Regarding the level of scientific evidence, the included articles fit level III, according to Melnyk and Fineout. DISCUSSION: Bearing in mind the limitations of the study, oral diseases in the global context showed that the quality of life related to oral and systemic health of women during and after incarceration was negatively affected. It is also essential for further clinical and follow-up studies to be carried out on incarcerated women that address their actual oral health needs.