Oral Health Is a Challenging Problem for Patients with Schizophrenia: A Narrative Review

Context: Poor oral health is part of co-morbidities and exposes patients suffering from schizophrenia to excess mortality. The purpose of this review is to make an up-to-date assessment on the oral health of these patients and make suggestions for improvement. Evidence Acquisition: Based on a bibliographic search of Pub Med, we identified, using keywords, all the clinical studies up to 2015 conducted on the oral health of patients with schizophrenia. Results: From 81 articles chosen, we retained 23 clinical studies that met our inclusion criteria. These studies find higher dental and periodontal indexes in patients with schizophrenia than in the general population. Access to healthcare is a problem for these patients. The level of research is insufficiently considered compared to other chronic pathologies. Many factors contribute to poor oral health in these patients such as their mental illness, side effects of psychotropic drugs, and any psychosocial factors they might encounter. Conclusions: For these fragile patients with specific needs, simple measures can be implemented to improve their oral health. Better taken into account, the oral health of these patients should contribute to the overall improvement of quality of life and to the general health of these subjects.