Background
The authors undertook a prospective study to determine whether kidney transplant recipients
had an increased risk of developing complications, such as local acute infection,
alveolitis, increased bleeding, pain, and delayed healing, after tooth extraction.
Methods
The authors selected patients who underwent kidney transplants more than 6 months
ago (study group) and patients who had not (control group) older than 18 years who
needed to undergo extraction of erupted teeth. The same oral surgeon performed all
tooth extractions while the patients were under local anesthesia. Another blind researcher
examined the patients 3, 7, and 21 days after tooth extraction. The first end point
was occurrence of complications (local acute infection, alveolitis, increased bleeding),
and the second end point was socket reepithelialization on day 21.
Results
Forty-five tooth extractions were performed on 38 study group participants and 61
on 57 control group participants. There was no statistical difference between the
groups regarding the incidence of any complication or delayed socket epithelialization.
Conclusions
The results of this pilot study suggest that there is no difference in postoperative
healing after tooth extractions between stable kidney transplant patients and control
patients.
Practical Implications
This is the first prospective study assessing the frequency of postoperative complications
after tooth extraction in kidney transplant recipients.
