Dental Considerations in the Management of Glanzmann's Thrombasthenia

Glanzmann's thrombasthenia, is one of the rarest congenital, genetically inherited platelet disorder. It has an incidence of about 1:1,000,000, but is more common in populations with increased consanguinity. Glanzmann's thrombasthenia is characterized by deficiency or dysfunction of glycoprotein (GP) lib and Ilia, which are the receptors of fibrinogen. Both sexes are equally affected. Typical mucocutaneous bleeding occurs at birth or early infancy. Obtaining appropriate dental history of excessive bleeding after dental extraction, unexplained spontaneous mucocutaneous bleeding, gingival bleeding during teething or shedding of deciduous teeth and petechiae, ecchymoses or purpura on mucous membranes can play an important part in diagnosis. Hence, the pediatric dentist plays a very crucial role for prompt diagnosis and management of Glanzmann's thrombasthenia. Presenting here is a known case of Glanzmann's thrombasthenia, of a 6-year-old girl who required to undergo dental extraction and its successful management using an "acrylic-splint" along with the placement of "Calgigraf-Ag Foam".