Use of positioning stents in lingual carcinoma patients subjected to radiotherapy.

To evaluate the short-term efficacy of oral positioning stents in minimizing the adverse oral effects of external beam radiation therapy in patients suffering from lingual carcinoma, 48 subjects were selected for this study. Half of the patients (n = 24) were given positioning stents while the other half (n = 24) formed the control group. Subjects were evaluated for oral radiation toxicity effects using the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group's 045 head and neck cancer adverse events grading tool from the National Cancer Institute's Common Toxicity Criteria for Adverse Events over a period of 60 days. The control group showed a significant increase in palatal mucositis, xerostomia, and salivary changes compared to the study group.