COMPARISON OF PLAQUE INDEX IN PATIENTS WITH CANCER WHO ARE UNDERGOING CHEMOTHERAPY BASED ON THE FREQUENCY

Background: One of the main cancer treatments is chemotherapy – a systemic treatment of cancer. Chemotherapy can kill cancer cells quickly, however it can also kill the healthy cells in human body. The more chemotherapy is done, the more cancer cells are damaged, and so are the healthy cells. One of the healthy cells that will be affected is oral cavity cells which can cause side effects, like xerostomia. Chemotherapy drugs are toxic and it can lead to destructive effects on salivary glands. Xerostomia can cause the reduced function of saliva as self-cleansing, thus it can be one factor to facilitate the forming of plaque. Purpose: The objective of this research is to identify the difference of plaque index score on cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy based on the frequency in RSUD Ulin Banjarmasin. Method: This research uses expost facto method with cross sectional approach. The samples of this research are 80 patients with cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy. Result: The data is tested by using nonparametric Kruskal Wallis test with p<0.05 (p=0.001) shows that there is a meaningful difference of plaque index score within each group. Conclusion: According to the research that has been conducted, it can be concluded that there is a meaningful difference of plaque index score in patients with cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy based on their frequency.