Involvement of the Oral Mucosa by Ingestion of Caustic Substances due to a Suicide Attempt and Its Treatment with the Use of Photobiomodulation: Report of Two Cases

Suicide is a major public health challenge worldwide, affecting both classes, sex and ages. The WHO estimates that 700,000 people die from this condition worldwide. With the onset of the pandemic, they believe that these numbers have increased, affecting mainly the most vulnerable. The ingestion of caustic substances is one of the most used means in suicides with significant damage to the oral cavity and gastrointestinal tract, in which the dental surgeon is the professional who must provide care for the treatment and oral rehabilitation in these cases. Thus, due to the scarcity of studies, we aim to report two cases of attempted self-extermination with the ingestion of caustic substances that caused great damage to the oral cavity and the care carried out in the intensive care unit, using oral care protocols associated with photobiomodulation with expressive results. We carried out the treatment in the intensive care unit with photobiomodulation, using low-power laser therapy, obtaining significant responses with an average time of four sessions of application of the protocol. We believe that because these are cases of high complexity and high mortality and morbidity rates, the presence of well-defined and applied protocols provides benefits to these patients.