Exposure to the oral side effects of medication in a community-based sample

Abstract

This descriptive study assessed the self-reported medications taken by 1,163 European-American and Mexican-American community-dwelling adults (age range 32 to 81 years of age) from the Oral Health: San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging (OH:SALSA) sample and reports on the potential oral side effects (OSE) of their medications. Data collection included sociodemographic characteristics, number of prescription and non-prescription drugs, and frequency of potential OSE. Medications were checked in three drug references, and all potential OSE were classified into 16 major categories. The mean number of medications taken per subject was 2.7. Persons 65 years or older, females, European Americans, and suburban residents reported taking more drugs than their counterparts. There was no difference in the number of drugs taken due to income or education (p>0.05). The Spearman rank order correlation between age and number of medications was 0.30 (p<0.001). The most frequent potential OSE was dry mouth in 664 subjects (57%), followed by bleeding in 456 (39%), alteration in taste of 389 (33%), and stomatitis in 331 (28%). The distribution of subjects with respect to number of potential OSE was: none, 20%; 1 to 2, 24%; 3 to 4, 26%; 5 to 6, 14%; and 7 or more, 16%. Many older community-dwelling persons may be at risk for multiple oral complications due to medications they are taking.

Potential oral manifestations of cardiovascular drugs

“…Only 75 of the 531 patients (14.1%) with CVD had clinically detectable or recorded oral symptoms or signs that might represent an adverse reaction to a CVD. The most frequent oral symptom was xerostomia in 40 subjects (7.5%), which is already known to be a likely oral adverse effect of many groups of drugs (Smith and Burtner, 1994; Shinkai et al , 2006). However, the presently observed frequency is far below the 80.5% reported in some studies of patients receiving other drug therapies (Smith and Burtner, 1994).…”

Clinical evaluation of medications on oral and dental health

“…Some medications can predispose patients to several oral mucosal lesions such as erythema multiforme or lichenoid lesions, mucositis, angioedema, perioral dermatitis, cheilitis, desquamation of the mucosa, glossitis etc. and discolouration of the oral tissues 4,7 . In this study, the rates of oral mucosal lesions, lichenoid reaction and oral pigmentation were higher in the medication group than control group, but it was not statistically significant.…”

Lichen planus and diabetes mellitus: Systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Specifically, it is defined as: (a) Occasional plasma glucose ≥200 mg/dl (additional to polyuria, polydipsia, and unexplained weight loss); (b) Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) ≥126 mg/dl, (c) Plasma glucose 2 hr after oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) ≥200 mg/dl (Alberti & Zimmet, ). It is suggested that those patients with uncontrolled DM present an increased susceptibility to the development of fungal infections such as candidiasis (Guggenheimer et al, ; Krishnan, ; Manzano‐Gayosso et al, ), mainly when associated with other local alterations such as the use of removable dental prosthesis (Dorocka‐Bobkowska et al, ) and decreased salivary secretion (Sousa, Costa, & Roncalli, ), which have been found in some studies to be associated with the use of certain medication, such as diuretic and antihypertensive drugs, commonly used among diabetic patients (Noboru Kuroiwa et al, ; Shinkai, Hatch, Schmidt, & Sartori, ). DM has also been associated with bacterial diseases, like gingivitis and periodontitis.…”