RESEARCH - Study links osteoporosis drugs to jaw osteonecrosis

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Study Links Osteoporosis Drugs to Jaw Trouble

By Gardner

HealthDay Reporter

Thursday, January 1, 2009; 12:00 AM

THURSDAY, Jan. 1 (HealthDay News) -- The proportion of people taking

widely prescribed oral osteoporosis drugs who develop a nasty jaw

condition may be much higher than previously thought, a new study

suggests.

Previous reports had indicated that the risk of developing

osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) from bisphosphonates in pill form were

" negligible, " although there was a noted risk in people taking the

higher-dose intravenous form of the drug.

But Dr. Parish Sedghizadeh, an assistant professor of clinical

dentistry at the University of Southern California School of Dentistry

in Los Angeles, said his clinic is seeing one to four new cases a

week, compared to one a year in the past. This led him to investigate

the phenomenon and publish the findings in the Jan. 1 issue of the

Journal of the American Dental Association.

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Read the entire article here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/01/AR2009010101198.\

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