Kaposi's sarcoma in patients with AIDS

All health care providers must become increasingly aware of the early signs and symptoms of AIDS as KS frequently appears in the head, neck, and oral regions. Dentists are responsible for recognizing these lesions, especially the early lesions, providing dental treatment as appropriate, and for referring patients with AIDS for counseling and treatment that cannot be provided in their office. Early detection of KS is particularly important for patients receiving dental treatment. The dentist must be careful not to further compromise the patient's health by extensive or stressful dental treatment and to prevent intraoperative or postoperative complications. Early supportive and palliative care will improve the patient's prognosis. Dental care will help HIV-infected patients and those with AIDS to avoid caries and periodontal disease. In addition, regular dental care will enable the dentist in the early diagnosis of the disease's oral manifestations, such as candidiasis, hairy leukoplakia, KS, or other oral opportunistic infection. Treatment of these conditions can significantly improve the patients' quality of life and their chances for survival. When universal precautions are used for infection control in the dental office there is no reason that comprehensive dental care cannot be provided for HIV infected patients--both for those that we know are infected and for those that are infected and we don't know about.