Extractions in kidney transplant recipients: A prospective observational pilot study

Background: The authors undertook a prospective study to determine whether kidney transplant recipients had an increased risk of developing complications, such as local acute infection, alveolitis, increased bleeding, pain, and delayed healing, after tooth extraction.

Methods: The authors selected patients who underwent kidney transplants more than 6 months ago (study group) and patients who had not (control group) older than 18 years who needed to undergo extraction of erupted teeth. The same oral surgeon performed all tooth extractions while the patients were under local anesthesia. Another blind researcher examined the patients 3, 7, and 21 days after tooth extraction. The first end point was occurrence of complications (local acute infection, alveolitis, increased bleeding), and the second end point was socket reepithelialization on day 21.

Results: Forty-five tooth extractions were performed on 38 study group participants and 61 on 57 control group participants. There was no statistical difference between the groups regarding the incidence of any complication or delayed socket epithelialization.

Conclusions: The results of this pilot study suggest that there is no difference in postoperative healing after tooth extractions between stable kidney transplant patients and control patients.

Practical implications: This is the first prospective study assessing the frequency of postoperative complications after tooth extraction in kidney transplant recipients. This clinical trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov. The registration number is NCT02547753.