Mouth Guards and Intra-Oral Evaluation for Patients’

Abstract

Objective: the aim of this article is to present a literature review on the mouthguards during electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and describe a protocol of dental care that can be performed prior ECT. Methods: following the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) the articles were selected according to the inclusion criteria described as follow: 1) articles published in English language; 2) Clinical follow-up studies, retrospective, prospective and randomized controlled clinical trials. Case reports were also considered as well as Letters to the Editor containing expert opinion. Results: seventy-seven articles were initially selected using the key words. After applying the inclusion criteria, 16 articles were selected based on the complete reading. A protocol is proposed based on the literature review and also based in the clinical expertise of the team of dentists working in the Psychiatric Institute of a Tertiary Hospital. Conclusion: trained dentists contribute to the safety of psychiatric patients’ who undergo to ECT procedure by performing an intra oral evaluation prior ECT where they can evaluate and decide the best mouthguard type for each patient and also identify and address emergencies that could represent a problem during the procedure. In some cases, the dental clinician evaluation is also requested after ECT and as well as, in follow ups during and after the psychiatric treatment