Dental tourism and the risk of barotrauma and barodontalgia

Background and aim Dental tourism, which reflects the provision of health care services abroad, also includes a travelling component. Air travel after dental intervention may cause barotrauma and barodontalgia. This paper aimed to provide guiding principles regarding the minimal time interval between dental procedures and air travel to prevent these adverse effects. Methods A literature search was performed to reveal information with regards to complications related to flights following dental treatments. There is little research in this area and most of it has been conducted on the military aircrew population, which has different characteristics of flight and personnel than civilian commercial flights. Results The recommended time of flying is one week after most dental intervention and six weeks after a sinus lift procedure. The minimal time required between a procedure and flight is 24 hours after restorative treatment, 24-48 hours after simple extraction, 72 hours after nonsurgical endodontic procedure, surgical extraction, and implant placement, and at least two weeks after sinus lift procedure. Conclusions The provided guidelines may serve as a starting point for the clinician's decision-making. The tailoring of an individual treatment plan to the patient should take into consideration the patient's condition, dental procedure, complications and flight characteristics. Further research based on commercial flights is needed to formulate more accurate guidelines for the civilian population.