Aerospace Dentistry: Exploring an Innovative Frontier in Oral Health and its Relevance as an Emerging Speciality

Abstract

The aim of the study is to expose the need to implement a new speciality within Stomatology, such as "aerospace dentistry," for which an exhaustive search was carried out of existing bibliographical sources in the literature since 1949. Under equations with the use of Bolen terms, which were selected under specific criteria of inclusion and exclusion, the document exposes the various situations of dental emergencies experienced in many missions carried out by NASA. This study shows, as a result, alterations produced in the stomatognathic system and their repercussion on the different dental treatments due to the variation in atmospheric pressure experienced by the crews on space flights. It concludes that there is a need for an aerospace dentist to adequately prepare the stomatognathic conditions for those chosen on a mission, to intervene in dental emergencies directly or indirectly, to study the variations and adaptations of dental materials, to investigate in depth the changes coming from the response of the stomatognathic system and to propose alternatives of prevention, intervention and solution of the problems in another atmospheric plane.