Association between bariatric surgery and tooth decay: a literature review

The obesity and overweight affects together, an estimated one-sixth of the world population. At first, the treatment is behavioral and clinical, however, these treatments become difficult due to low patient compliance across the long time needed to obtain more meaningful results. Bariatric surgery then emerged as a plausible and successful option for optimizing weight loss in severely whose obese patients initial treatment has failed and that meet the indication criteria. However, some types of this group of operations entail, in the long term changes in the body. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to conduct a literature review in order to know the association between bariatric surgery and tooth decay. CONCLUSION: It is possible that the patient undergoing bariatric surgery, has increased their risk of developing dental caries and subsequent carious lesions, mainly due to changes occurring in oral physiology, associated with behavioral changes imposed by the treatment, requiring however, larger studies so that such risk is justified.