Major considerations of the dentist in the diagnosis and treatment of oral cancer in hospitals: a systematic review

Introduction: Contemporary dental care must be comprehensive, aimed not only at dental treatment but also at assessing the patient's health status. Dentistry is of paramount importance in preventive actions against cancer in hospitals, given that oral cancers (OC) have a frequency of approximately 90% of cases in hospitals. Objective: It was to present, through a systematic review, the importance of the dental surgeon in the early diagnosis and prevention of oral cancer in the hospital environment. Methods: The present study followed a systematic review model, following the rules of systematic review – PRISMA. The search strategy was performed in the PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. The quality of the studies was based on the GRADE instrument and the risk of bias was analyzed according to the Cochrane instrument. Results and Conclusion: A total of 118 articles were found. A total of 67 articles were fully evaluated and 38 were included in this study. Based on the objective of the present study and on the literary findings, it became evident that the elaboration of the work by dentists in hospitals can enable early and effective treatment of patients with oral cancer. It also made it possible to discuss dentistry in general, address dental care in the hospital environment, and highlight the difficulties faced in its insertion in hospitals. It is necessary to train and train the entire hospital team and the dental surgeon so that oral health is offered to patients, as well as to know the impact caused by oral problems on the systemic health of patients and implement specific protocols on the subject in all hospital aspects. The dentist must promote the general health of the hospitalized individual, based on interdisciplinary planning developed together with other health professionals, as well as assess the main needs of the patient and contribute to the quality of life of these individuals