Women who take tablets to protect their bones from osteoporosis may be at risk of suffering serious jaw damage, new research suggests.
A study carried out by researchers at the University of Southern California’s School of Dentistry found that drugs such as Fosamax could be linked to a condition that can lead to long-term infection or even destruction of the jawbone.
The findings, published in the Journal of the American Dental Association, revealed that as many as one in 25 users could be at risk of osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ).
Researchers examined 208 healthy patients who had taken Fosamax tablets and found that nine had ONJ, despite claims from the manufacturer Merck that the risk was largely confined to patients receiving the drugs intravenously.
Dentists in the UK are now calling for doctors to advise adult female patients about ONJ when prescribing drugs to prevent bone-thinning and for any major dental work to be carried out first.
However, they stressed that women should not stop taking their course of prescription as the benefits of the drugs, called bisphosphonates, outweigh the risk of possible side effects.
