Decrypting the occurrence of mucormycosis following dental extractions: A systematic review

Mucormycosis is a life-threatening opportunistic infection. The present systematic review was done to provide to date summary of the frequency of rhino-orbital-mucormycosis (ROM) cases following a tooth extraction, as there was no systematic review present till now to highlight it.

The PubMed, PMC, Google Scholar, and Ovid Embase databases were searched thoroughly with appropriate keywords till April 2022 including the human population with language restrictions including English literature to collate case reports and case series regarding post-extraction Mucormycosis. All the details of the patient's characteristics were extracted and presented as a table and evaluated on different endpoints.

In total, we identified 31 case reports and 1 case series that results in 38 cases with Mucormycosis. The majority of patients belong to India (47. 4%). There was male predominance (68.4%) and involvement of maxilla was the most. Pre-existing diabetes mellitus (DM)(55.3%) was an independent risk factor for mucormycosis. The median period for the onset of symptoms was 30(14-75) days. 21.1% of cases presented signs and symptoms of cerebral involvement allied with DM.

Dental extraction can trigger ROM by rupturing the oral mucous membrane. Clinicians should pay attention to the non-healing extraction socket which may be an early clinical manifestation of it, which is the key to tackling this deadlier infection.