(NaturalNews) Widely used osteoporosis drugs can significantly increase the risk of bone death in the jaw, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) School of Dentistry and published in the
Journal of the American Dental Association.
Researchers found an increased prevalence of osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) among the 208 patients in the School of Dentistry's medical records database who were taking the osteoporosis drug alendronate (marketed as Fosamax).
ONJ occurs when reduced blood flow to the
bones in the jaw leads to the death of
bone tissue, producing symptoms including
infection, loose teeth, exposed bone, soft-tissue swelling and pain. Up until the publication of the current results, researchers had believed that the ONJ risk from oral
osteoporosis drugs was "negligible."
Fosamax is the 21st most common
drug prescribed in the United States, and the most widely prescribed oral drug in the bisphosphonate family.
Bisphosphonates protect against
fractures and the loss of bone mass in
osteoporosis patients by interfering with the process by which the body removes calcium and other minerals from bones. Well-known side effects of the
drugs include an elevated
risk of thigh-bone fractures, inflammatory eye disease and irregular heartbeat. Prior research has shown that
patients taking high intravenous doses of
bisphosphonates also have an elevated risk of ONJ.
According to the current study, however, ONJ risk is increased even in those who take lower doses of oral bisphosphonates for as little as one year. The researchers found that ONJ tends to occur after a routine tooth extraction, perhaps because bisphosphonates have lowered the bones' resistance to bacterial infection.
Researcher and
dentist Parish Sedghizadeh was inspired to conduct the study when he noticed unusually high ONJ rates among patients at his
dental clinic in recent years -- as many as four per week. The USC School of Dentistry has now adopted a policy of screening patients for bisphosphonate use before performing dental procedures.
Sources for this story include:
www.washingtonpost.com.
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