Proactive preventive dental care to maintain eating function in palliative care: a narrative review

Oral complications are common in palliative care and may directly impair patients' eating habits, comfort, and quality of life. Despite these impacts, dental integration remains suboptimal into supportive oncology and non-cancer palliative care models in many settings. This review synthesized current evidence and proposed a practical framework for proactive preventive dental care.

A structured narrative review was conducted via the PubMed and Ichushi-Web electronic databases to identify studies indexed between 2000 and 2026. The literature addressing oral symptoms, mastication, nutrition, denture management, and interdisciplinary care in serious illnesses was included.

Oral dysfunctions, including xerostomia, mucosal and dental pain, oral infections, and denture instability, are frequently reported in palliative populations and contribute to reduced dietary intake and diminished quality of life. Emerging evidence suggests that maintaining masticatory function may support nutritional stability, treatment tolerance, and patient-reported quality of life. On the basis of the synthesized literature, we propose a proactive preventive dental care (PPDC) framework that emphasizes routine oral assessment, pain management, moisturization, hygiene maintenance, early functional restoration, and interdisciplinary collaboration with nutrition and palliative teams.

Integrating anticipatory dental strategies into supportive and palliative care may help preserve eating-related quality of life across both cancer and non-cancer illness trajectories. Prospective studies are needed to evaluate the clinical impact of the implementation of proactive dental care strategies in multidisciplinary supportive care.