How does chemotherapy affect your teeth?

Chemotherapy is a common treatment method in life. Although chemotherapy can suppress human diseases, it can also cause great harm to the human body. For example, some people experience nausea, hair loss, and physical weakness after chemotherapy. In addition, chemotherapy will have a certain effect on teeth and cause them to loosen. Therefore, you must eat less hard food and try to eat a light diet.

Chemotherapy is the abbreviation of chemotherapy, which achieves the treatment purpose by using chemotherapy drugs to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy is currently one of the most effective methods for treating cancer, and is considered one of the three major cancer treatments along with surgery and radiotherapy. Surgery and radiotherapy are local treatments and are only effective for tumors at the treatment site. They are difficult to effectively treat potential metastatic lesions (cancer cells have actually metastasized, but cannot be discovered and detected clinically due to current technical limitations) and cancers that have already undergone clinical metastasis. Chemotherapy is a systemic treatment method. No matter what route of administration is used (oral, intravenous, and intracavitary administration, etc.), chemotherapy drugs will circulate in the blood and spread to most organs and tissues throughout the body. Therefore, chemotherapy is the main treatment for some tumors that tend to spread throughout the body and for some late-stage tumors that have already metastasized.

When should chemotherapy be chosen?

1. Malignant tumors that are sensitive to chemotherapy and are treated with chemotherapy as the main treatment method may be cured through standardized chemotherapy. For example, small cell lung cancer, leukemia, malignant lymphoma, choriocarcinoma, germ cell malignant tumors, etc.

2. For sensitive or relatively sensitive malignant tumors, chemotherapy should be performed before or after surgery.

3. Palliative chemotherapy for advanced malignant tumors.

Chemotherapy drugs are cytotoxic drugs, which may have some toxic side effects, the most common of which are:

1. Digestive system reactions

Such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation. Among them, nausea and vomiting is one of the most common reactions to chemotherapy. In recent years, some powerful and effective antiemetic drugs have been launched on the market, which greatly reduces the nausea and vomiting reactions after chemotherapy.

2. Bone marrow suppression

Such as leukopenia and thrombocytopenia. Generally, the condition will recover on its own 1 to 2 weeks after stopping chemotherapy. For some more serious bone marrow suppression, there are drugs available that can effectively increase leukemia and platelets, so there is no need to worry.

3. Hair loss

Some chemotherapy drugs may cause hair loss, but hair loss is reversible and new hair will grow back after chemotherapy is stopped.

4. Others

Such as liver and kidney damage.

Most of the adverse reactions and toxic side effects of chemotherapy are reversible and can be controlled or alleviated through the use of some auxiliary drugs. However, chemotherapy is a relatively intensive treatment method after all. Therefore, clinicians should strictly grasp the indications for chemotherapy, formulate chemotherapy plans in a standardized and reasonable manner, and take necessary preventive measures.