Cancer therapies can create oral health challenges before, during, and long after treatment. In collaboration with Jill Meyer-Lippert, RDH, Founder of Side Effect Support, we explore how dental practices can move from reactive care to proactive preparedness—and why the right education, communication, and practice systems matter.
When a patient sits in your dental chair and shares that they have recently been diagnosed with cancer, does your team know what to do next?
What questions should you ask?
What information should be communicated to the patient’s oncology team?
Are there oral health concerns that should be addressed before cancer therapy begins?
And when a patient reports a history of cancer treatment—even years later—does your medical history process uncover the information your clinical team needs to provide safe, comprehensive care?
These are questions every dental practice should be prepared to answer.
Cancer survivorship continues to grow as advances in early detection and treatment improve outcomes. For dental professionals, that means caring for an increasing number of patients who are preparing for, actively undergoing, or have completed cancer therapy.
And their oral health needs may be very different.
Oral Health Is Part of the Cancer-Care Conversation
Cancer therapies can create significant oral complications during treatment and, in some cases, risks that remain long after active treatment has ended.
Potential concerns may include:
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Xerostomia and changes in salivary function
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Oral mucositis
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Increased caries risk
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Changes in the oral microbiome
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Opportunistic oral infections
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Nutritional challenges related to oral discomfort
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Increased sensitivity and tissue changes
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Medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ)
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Long-term complications associated with radiation and certain medications
These aren't simply comfort concerns.
Oral complications can affect nutrition, quality of life, infection risk, and a patient's ability to tolerate treatment. This makes communication and collaboration between dental and medical professionals especially important.
Dental teams have an opportunity to become proactive members of the patient's healthcare team—not simply respond to complications after they occur.
Do You Feel Prepared?
Imagine an established patient arrives for an appointment and tells the hygienist:
"I was just diagnosed with cancer. I start treatment in a few weeks."
What happens next in your practice?
Does your team have a defined protocol?
Do you know which questions should be asked regarding the diagnosis, medications, chemotherapy, radiation, targeted therapies, antiresorptive medications, or other treatments?
Does your team know when communication with the patient's oncology providers may be appropriate?
And most importantly, does everyone on the team understand their role?
Preparedness shouldn't depend on which hygienist, assistant, administrator, or dentist happens to be working that day.
It should be part of the practice's system of care.
A Personal Mission Becomes a Professional Resource
For Jill Meyer-Lippert, RDH, Founder of Side Effect Support, LLC, this mission is deeply personal.
Jill began her dental career in 1992, around the same time her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Watching her mother struggle with severe xerostomia and oral mucositis during chemotherapy revealed a significant gap: patients experiencing cancer-related oral complications often lacked clear guidance and resources to help prevent or manage them.
That experience ultimately inspired Jill to create Side Effect Support.
Today, Side Effect Support provides education and resources designed to help cancer survivors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals better understand and manage the oral effects associated with cancer therapies.
Explore Side Effect Support's resources for dental professionals:
https://sideeffectsupport.com/blogs/professionals
Learn more about Jill Meyer-Lippert, RDH and her work:
https://sideeffectsupport.com/pages/jill-meyer-lippert-helping-end-side-effects-from-cancer-treatment
Did You Know?
Cancer Treatment Is Not One-Size-Fits-All
Head and neck radiation is well recognized for its potential impact on oral health, but radiation is only one part of the conversation.
Patients frequently receive combinations of therapies. Depending upon the patient's treatment plan, dental considerations may extend to chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapies, antiresorptive medications, and other oncology-related drugs.
That makes a thorough and regularly updated medical history essential.
Instead of simply documenting "history of cancer," dental teams may need to understand:
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Type of cancer
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Date of diagnosis
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Current treatment status
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Previous treatments
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Radiation history and treatment location
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Current and previous oncology medications
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History of antiresorptive or other medications associated with MRONJ risk
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Current oncology providers
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Existing oral symptoms or changes
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Relevant medical recommendations or precautions
The goal isn't for the dental team to become the oncology team.
The goal is to know enough to ask the right questions, recognize potential concerns, and collaborate appropriately.
Oral Mucositis: Why Prevention and Early Support Matter
Oral mucositis can develop during certain cancer therapies and may become progressively more difficult for patients to manage.
Painful inflammation or ulceration can interfere with eating, drinking, speaking, and maintaining oral hygiene. For an immunocompromised patient, maintaining oral health can become especially important.
This is why proactive dental care before treatment begins, when circumstances allow, can be so valuable.
A pretreatment dental evaluation may provide an opportunity to:
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Identify potential sources of infection or irritation
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Establish baseline oral health
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Address urgent dental needs in coordination with the medical team
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Review home-care techniques
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Discuss anticipated oral complications
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Evaluate products being used at home
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Establish a plan for communication and follow-up
Side Effect Support provides additional professional education regarding oral mucositis and oral hygiene:
Read: Mucositis and Oral Hygiene
https://sideeffectsupport.com/blogs/professionals/mucositis-and-oral-hygiene
MRONJ Risk Doesn't Necessarily End When Cancer Treatment Ends
One particularly important area for dental teams is Medication-Related Osteonecrosis of the Jaw (MRONJ).
Certain medications used as part of cancer treatment or management can carry implications for dental care. Because medication histories and associated risks can extend beyond the patient's active cancer treatment period, asking detailed questions about past as well as current medications is important.
A patient who says, "I'm done with cancer treatment," may still have information in their medical history that affects future dental treatment decisions.
This reinforces why a meaningful medical history review involves more than asking patients whether anything has changed.
The CDS Perspective: Turning Knowledge Into a Repeatable System
Knowing what should happen is only the first step.
At Custom Dental Solutions (CDS), we routinely work with dental practices to strengthen the systems, communication, team calibration, and workflows that turn good intentions into consistent patient care.
Cancer-care preparedness is an excellent example.
A practice can have knowledgeable clinicians but still experience gaps if:
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Medical histories aren't consistently reviewed
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Important information isn't documented in an easily identifiable location
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Administrative and clinical teams don't know what information needs to be collected
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Provider communication doesn't have an established process
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Team members aren't calibrated around when to escalate a concern
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Patient education varies depending upon the team member
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There is no established follow-up protocol
The question therefore becomes:
Does your practice have a system—or are you relying on individual team members to remember what to do?
CDS helps practices examine these types of workflows and build practical systems around them.
Explore CDS Practice Optimization and team-support solutions:
https://www.customdentalsolutions.com/
Will You Go Above and Beyond?
Dental professionals cannot prevent every complication associated with cancer therapy.
But we can ask better questions.
We can identify risks earlier.
We can educate our patients.
We can communicate with other members of their healthcare team.
And we can create practice systems that make this level of care consistent rather than accidental.
Patients facing a cancer diagnosis are navigating an overwhelming amount of information. Their dental office can become another disconnected piece of healthcare—or it can become a trusted partner.
Which experience will your practice provide?
Start With Three Action Steps
1. Review your medical history.
Does it capture enough information about current and previous cancer treatment to prompt meaningful follow-up questions?
2. Evaluate your team's preparedness.
Ask your hygienists, assistants, administrative team, and doctors what they would do tomorrow if a patient announced a new cancer diagnosis.
If you receive four different answers, you've identified an opportunity.
3. Build your resources and protocol.
Use trusted oncology-focused dental resources to educate your team, and then create a consistent workflow for gathering information, communicating with providers, educating patients, documenting care, and following up.
The goal isn't for your dental team to have every answer. It's to have the awareness, resources, communication, and systems in place to know what questions to ask—and what to do next.
Oncology-Specific Education & Resources
Visit Side Effect Support, LLC for professional education, patient resources, and information addressing oral health before, during, and after cancer therapy:
https://sideeffectsupport.com/
Practice Systems, Coaching & Team Implementation
If your practice recognizes the need for stronger protocols, team calibration, medical-history processes, communication systems, or patient-care workflows, Custom Dental Solutions can help you turn the education into an actionable, repeatable system:
https://www.customdentalsolutions.com/
About Jill Meyer-Lippert, RDH
Jill Meyer-Lippert, RDH, is the Founder of Side Effect Support, LLC, an organization dedicated to helping cancer survivors manage short-term oral side effects and reduce long-term oral health complications associated with cancer therapies. Her work provides education and resources for patients, caregivers, dental professionals, and medical professionals while encouraging greater collaboration between dental and oncology teams.
Educational Disclaimer: This article is intended for professional education and general informational purposes only. It does not replace individualized medical or dental assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning, or consultation with a patient's oncology and healthcare providers.