Systemic and oral changes in cocaína-using patients: an integrative literature review

Abstract

Introduction: The use of cocaine is closely associated with the appearance of some systemic manifestations and also some oral alterations. Objective: To identify the most common systemic and oral alterations in cocaine-using patients. Methodology: This is a systematic review of the literature, considering full-text articles, with a language restriction of "Portuguese" or "English" and published between 2017 and 2022. We used the LiLaCS, MedLine and BBO databases, via the Virtual Health Library (VHL) portal, and SciELO. The articles excluded were those that did not explicitly relate cocaine use to some systemic and/or oral manifestation. Results: After the screening process, 10 articles were saved for analysis and 111 were discarded because they did not meet the inclusion criteria. Of the 10 articles selected, 40% (n=4) provided information identifying possible risks of developing cardiovascular diseases suffered by cocaine users, 10% (n=1) identified cognitive problems associated with cocaine use, 30% of the articles (n=3) showed oral alterations associated with cocaine abuse. Conclusions: There has been a predominance of some systemic and oral manifestations in cocaine users, such as cardiovascular diseases, xerostomia, perforations in the palate, etc. Based on this, there are some systemic and oral alterations caused by this use.  Given the considerable risk, it is necessary for dentists to be up-to-date on these alterations in cocaine-using patients in order to promote transdisciplinary and multi-professional work to adequately meet their needs.

Keywords: Dentistry; Cocaine; Drug users; Manifestations; Dentists.