194 Chapter 6 A systematic review of longitudinal studies revealed inconsistent findings on the association between tooth loss and nutritional status in adults [23]. To our knowledge, to date, no studies have investigated the effect of incomplete dentition or loss of functional units due to tooth extraction prior to CRT/BRT, on body weight and TF dependency in patients with head and neck cancer. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of incomplete dentition, tooth extractions prior to CRT/BRT, and the subsequent loss of functional units on the following: (1) weight loss during CRT/BRT and (2) the need for TF during CRT/ BRT for OPSCC. We hypothesized that OPSCC patients who underwent tooth extractions prior to RT, experienced greater weight loss during CRT/BRT and were more prone to TF dependency compared to patients whose teeth were not removed.
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