Abstract

PUPO, Maria Letícia de Moura Gonçalves Schwab; PARIZOTO, Gabriella Antunes; GONZAGA, Carla Castiglia  and  LOPES, Maria da Graça Kfouri. Index of dental risk for pretransplant renal hemodialysis patients. RSBO (Online) [online]. 2010, vol.7, n.1, pp. 50-56. ISSN 1984-5685.

INTRODUCTION: Patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) have low immunity due to the medicines they use, their clinical condition and the treatment itself. For this reason, any infection, including oral infections, present a higher risk for this group of patients. OBJECTIVE: To develop and implement an index of dental risk according to the severity of the lesions present in the oral cavity of pretransplant hemodialysis patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The most prevalent infectious processes in the oral cavity were classified according to their severity, and an index of dental risk was developed for pretransplant renal patients. Thirteen patients of the Pro-Renal Foundation of Curitiba were selected and submitted to clinical and radiographic examination for the determination of the index of dental risk proposed in this study. RESULTS: According to the pathologies diagnosed, the index of dental risk of the patients can be classified as low, medium or high, which indicates the need for dental treatment prior to renal transplantation. 38% of the 13 patients submitted to clinical and radiographic examination were classified as high-risk patients. CONCLUSION: This index may present great value to health professionals in the evaluation, treatment and control of the oral health conditions of chronic renal failure patients.

Keywords : dental focal infection; dental risk; hemodialysis.