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Palliative cancer care - oral problems - Management
What are the risk factors for oral candidiasis?
- Local factors:
- Poor oral hygiene.
- Wearing dentures.
- Dry mouth.
- Alteration of saliva composition (e.g. when levels of salivary glucose are high owing to diabetes).
- Damage to the oral mucosa from radiotherapy, chemotherapy, surgery, or cancer.
- Alterations in mouth flora (e.g. levels of competitive bacteria in the mouth are reduced after treatment with antibiotics).
- Reduced mechanical debridement (e.g. comatose, enterally or parenterally fed people, trismus).
- Systemic factors:
- Diabetes.
- Immunosuppression.
- Drugs (e.g. corticosteroids).
- Malnutrition.
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