Prevalence of Dental Carious Lesions with Different Classes of Medications

Abstract

Background: Past research has produced conflicting results concerning the usage of medications and the associated oral health consequences. The authors examined non-cavitated and cavitated coronal and root carious lesions among subjects taking a variety of medications compared to those taking no medications to assess whether the effects of taking multiple medications had on carious lesion prevalence.Objective: The objective of this study was to assess how the different classes of medication adversely affected the oral cavity, specifically in the formation of dental carious lesions.Methods: A representative sample of 1028 volunteers aged 40-80 from the Greater Boston area, with at least 10 natural teeth were included in this study. After disqualifying subjects on medications with autoimmune conditions known to cause xerostomia, or a previous history of radiation to the head and neck area, 882 volunteers on medications known to cause salivary hypofunction and 146 volunteers taking no medications were enrolled. Non-cavitated and cavitated carious lesions were examined by a single calibrated dental examiner using visual and tactile methods. Major medication groups included psychiatric (N=258), single antihypertensive (N=180), multiple antihypertensive including cardiac medications (N=145), a combination of antihypertensive and psychiatric medications (N=85), anti-asthma medications (N=67), Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory (NSAIDs) (N= 34) and all other medications (N=113).Results: Subjects on psychiatric medications had the highest number of total carious lesions (5.4±4.94) while those taking no medications had the least (2.6±2.92). Subjects on a combination of antihypertensive and psychiatric medications had the highest number of carious root surface lesions (1.18±4.06). Those subjects on anti-asthma medications exhibited the highest number of cavitated coronal surface lesions (1.41±2.06). Conclusion:This study found xerostomic medications vary in their deleterious effects on dental carious lesions. A combination of antihypertensive and psychiatric medications is the most detrimental, as evidenced by a higher prevalence of carious lesions in those participants taking them.Clinical significance: As usage of concomitant xerogenic medications is likely to continue to increase, educating clinicians and the general public about the effects on oral health is essential to limiting dental carious lesions by instituting appropriate preventive protocols. Keywords: Dental carious lesions; Medications; Side effectsCitation: Singh M, Papas AS, Papas AN, Barker ML, Biesbrock A (2015) [7,13,14,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31].Past research has produced conflicting results concerning a link between asthma medications and caries incidence. Meldrum et al., [32] found no significant differences in caries increment between asthma-free and asthma subjects. However, only 42.4% of the asthma subjects used anti-asthma medications, indicating that the medication rather than the condition may play a role. Consistent wi...