Interdisciplinary approaches to preventing oral complications in diabetic patients: a systematic literature review

Abstract

In the last three decades the number of people with diabetes has doubled. The global prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) is rapidly rising as a result of population aging, urbanization and associated lifestyle changes. Among the complications in the oral sphere of diabetes were reported: periodontal disease (PD) (the most important oral disease correlated with diabetes), xerostomia, oral candidiasis, glossodynia, slow healing of the tissues of the oral cavity, as well as other conditions for which it would be necessary to implement early prophylactic and therapeutic measures. This systematic literature review was conducted to answer the following questions: The primary question: What are the ways to prevent periodontal disease and oral mucosal diseases in DM patients? And the secondary questions were: How were these methods evaluated in the studies included in the research? What is the level of knowledge of both patients and diabetologists regarding the prevention of these oral complications in diabetic patients? 436 bibliographic references were identified and were centralized in a file. The studies were evaluated according to their title and abstract, following the extent to which they correspond to the inclusion criteria. After analyzing the titles, 351 articles were excluded and the remaining 86 had their abstracts evaluated. 25 articles were selected and read in full, two of which were excluded because they proved not to be relevant to the chosen topic. Thus, finally, 23 studies were included in the systematic review. The most important conclusion was that: an interdisciplinary collaboration is necessary between health specialists, dentists and diabetologists alike, with the aim of developing programs to educate diabetic patients about the oral complications of DM and their prevention.