Impact of bariatric surgery on the patient's oral health condition: a literature review

Abstract

Obesity is a chronic disease characterized by the accumulation of body adiposity. The prevalence of this disease isconsidered a public health problem in the world: The difficulty of patients to follow conservative therapeutic methods, bariatric surgery has become an agile and safe treatment option. However, in the postoperative period, some systemic and oral alterations have been observed, such as osteoporosis, vitamin D deficiency, xerostomia, dental erosion, tooth loss, caries,periodontal disease, among others. These oral changes are due to decreased saliva pH, gastroesophageal reflux, vomiting and changing habits after the procedure. This study, which aims to identify the oral manifestations that may develop in the postoperative period of bariatric surgeries. The results showed that bariatric surgery provides systemic improvements relevant to the overall health condition of the patient; however, it can potentiate disease in the oral cavity, specifically increased periodontal diseases, caries, xerostomia, non-carious lesions and tooth and implant losses. All these oral alterations are due to the modification of the food routine and diet, the regurgitations that occur by the alteration in the gastrointestinal tract with the surgical procedure, dehydration and nutritional deficiency that directly affect the mineral framework of dental support tissues. As the number of bariatric surgeries has been increasing over the years, it is important to identify oral problems that affect this group of patients in the postoperative period, in order to enable the elaboration of intervention measures aimed at improvements in oral health.