Use of herbal medicines to control oral changes post-oncological treatment: new alternatives in dentistry

The cancer treatment can cause several oral changes during and after the process that can lead to deficits in chewing, phonation, swallowing, in addition to pain and poor nutrition. In this context, there is still a search to prove the use of herbal medicines in oncology with lesions in the oral cavity caused by oncotherapy. Thus, the work in question is a literature review, with the objective of reporting, from the analysis of journals, the observation of favorable effects for the treatment of oral lesions as a result of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, through the use of herbal medicines: Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), Pomegranate (Punica granatum) and Propolis extract (Apis mellifera L.). Electronic data search was carried out through Scholar Google and PubMed, using the Health Sciences Descriptors (Phytotherapic Drugs, Neoplasms, Antineoplastic Protocols). The studies presented in this work show that the use of these herbal medicines can help in the treatment of injuries resulting from chemotherapy and radiotherapy, as they have several anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and anti-tumor actions, among others. Finally, the herbal medicines presented can be considered as a new alternative, thus being a favorable treatment choice in relation to conventional medicines (allopathy), both because they are natural and do not further reduce the patient's immunity, but also because of their low cost.