Nutritional considerations for patients undergoing maxillofacial surgery - A literature review

Malnutrition is one of the most common causes of morbidity in patients undergoing maxillofacial surgery. In these patients, normal food intake is impaired because of the disease state and is complicated further by the surgical procedures. Surgery imparts controlled injury and delays wound healing capacity. Consideration should be given to the nutritional status of these patients in both preoperative and postoperative period so as to reduce postoperative complications. It should be imperative upon the part of dental professional to identify patients at nutritional risk, perform nutritional screening tests and provide dietary guidelines. In this paper we have focused on nutritional risk, nutritional assessment, and recommendations for such kind of patients.