Accuracy in osteoporosis diagnosis of a combination of mandibular cortical width measurement on dental panoramic radiographs and a clinical risk index (OSIRIS): The OSTEODENT project

The role of the dental surgeon in detecting osteoporosis: the OSTEODENT study

“…One can postulate that dentists in a primary care setting would be inac curate in making some measurements by hand. 7,25 Our methodology involves a computer-measured mandibular corti cal width to make the initial diagnosis of a high risk of osteoporosis, and fol lowing consultation with the patient, the dentist can either provide fol low-up clinical questions, such as an OSIRIS clinical risk index, or refer to a specialist.…”

“…The methodology of subject recruitment and examination has been fully described previously, 7 and is summarised here. With Ethics Committee approval, female subjects (aged 45-70 years) were recruited consecutively into the study following their informed consent.…”

“…Hip frac tures, in particular, are associated with significant mortality and morbidity in the elderly, 1 but in one study, less than one fifth (18%) of high risk peo ple had received medical treatment for osteoporosis before the occurrence of hip fracture. 2 The current failure to assess and treat patients at high risk of osteoporosis may be partly due to 1* School of Dentistry, University of Manchester; 2,3,7,8 Im aging Science and Biomedical Engineering, University of Manchester; 4 Oral Imaging Centre, Katholieke Uni versiteit, Belgium; 5 Oral Diagnosis and Radiology, Den tal School of Athens; 6 Faculty of Odontology, Malmo University, Sweden; 9,11 School of Dentistry, University of Manchester; 10 insufficient resources or time, but a failure of health professionals to iden tify risk factors and refer the patient for defi nitive diagnosis using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is an important contributory factor.…”

“…Recently, we reported the use of mandibular cortical width measure ments on dental panoramic radiographs (DPRs) as an alternative method of iden tifying patients with osteoporosis. 6,7 The underlying rationale for this is the enormous number of DPRs taken in den tal practice. We propose a strategy of the dentist referring individuals with a thin mandibular cortex and other clini cal risk factors for further DXA inves tigation.…”

Oral Health and Bone Density in Adolescents and Young Women with Anorexia Nervosa

“…A major obstacle to combating bone loss is the failure to identify individuals with the condition until the clinical consequences have occurred. 13 Early diagnosis is critical as several treatments have been shown to slow progressive bone loss, reduce the risk of fracture, and the subsequent morbidity and mortality associated with it. The serious implications of a low BMD and the associated risk of osteoporosis warrant a means to detect patients at risk without use of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).…”