A review of the biological and clinical aspects of radiation caries.

Aim: The aim of this article is to review the clinical and biological features underlying the development and progression of radiation caries.

Background: Although radiotherapy (RT) plays an important role in the management of patients with head and neck cancer (HNC), it is also associated with several undesired side effects such as radiation caries which is a common, yet serious, complication. To review the condition, the Pubmed database was searched using the keywords "radiotherapy," "radiation," "caries," "hyposalivation," "prevention" and "management".