Relationship between bariatric surgery and dental erosion: a systematic review

Background: Bariatric surgery can have several oral repercussions, including tooth erosion due to decreased salivary flow associated with the action of acidic pH and behavioral modifications in the diet that lead to the dissolution of mineralized dental tissues.

Objectives: This systematic review aimed to evaluate whether bariatric surgery presented a greater risk of dental erosion.

Setting: Dentistry School, Pernambuco University, Camaragibe, Pernambuco, Brazil.

Methods: This review was based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes (PRISMA) and registered at the International Prospective Registry of Systematic Reviews (CRD42019124960). A search was performed in the PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases using the following descriptors: "dental erosion OR tooth wear OR oral health OR dental wear OR tooth erosion OR salivary flow AND bariatric surgery OR gastrectomy OR obesity surgery".

Results: The review included 553 articles (after exclusion of duplicates) submitted for title and abstract reading, of which 24 were selected for full text analysis. Five articles fulfilling the eligibility criteria were included in the qualitative and quantitative analysis review. Because of high heterogeneity of the studies, meta-analysis could not be performed.

Conclusions: Based on the review, we concluded that patients undergoing bariatric surgery had a higher incidence of dental erosion. All studies presented a high degree of dental erosion in patients submitted to bariatric surgery (P < .05).

Keywords: Bariatric surgery; Dental erosion; Gastrectomy; Obesity surgery; Oral health; Tooth wear.