Dental management long term follow-up of the post radio-chemotherapy—Rhabdomyosarcoma patient: Report of a case

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common soft-tissue sarcoma of childhood and adolescence involving the head and neck. It occurs most often in the head and neck region, genitourinary tract, retroperitoneum and the extremities. The current treatment of a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy has dramatically improved the long term survival rates over the last 20 years. However, some of the side effects of post-radiation include delayed eruption of teeth, retarded tooth and bone development, dwarfed teeth, partial anadontia, osteoradionecrosis, xerostomia, mucositis, candidiasis, trismus, loss of taste, soft tissue necrosis, and scar tissue formation. RMS is a comparatively rare lesion for the maxillofacial surgeons. Although documented to be the most common soft tissue sarcoma in children under 15 years of age, there is, however, a paucity of reports on the pattern of the late effects of multimodal treatment results about intra-oral involvement. This case report focused on the dental treatment and facial abnormalities in a long-term survivor of pediatric head and neck RMS patient and review of the literature.