Bisphosphonates very bad for teeth

Although super effective as a cancer treatment, bisphosphonates have been known to be extremely bad for the teeth. They cause osteonecrosis of the jaw, meaning that the jawbone itself starts to die, totally unable to support the different kinds of tissues, some soft, some hard, that grow on it. This way the entirety of the oral environment starts to die, and the jawbone becomes exposed, which has been described by many as the most painful event that will ever occur in your life. Bisphosphonates can also have milder symptoms, like regular tooth loss followed by dry socket, for example, bleeding gums, constant oral infections, etc. They are also responsible for wounds and dental procedures taking longer to heal, and are all around terrible for your teeth.

Bisphosphonates

Aside from being used as a cancer medication, the drug is also administered to patients who are suffering from osteoporosis. The problem is that the bones do not heal while the patient is on bisphosphonates, and thus the exposed bits become necrotic. Dental implants also fail when this drug is being taken. The sad truth though is that currently there are no accepted and reliable substitutes to these drugs that deliver the same effect. There are some interesting things to consider though.

An interesting find

All of these side effects only come out with people who use bisphosphonates orally, there have been no such symptoms associated with intravenous use. The findings, which were unearthed due to a large scale study about the effects of bisphosphonate drugs on human health, and the study confirmed that patients who were talking their bisphosphonates orally were 11 times more likely to have delayed dental healing.

It seems that the solution would be to just administer the drug intravenously, but this has its difficulties. Patient participation is much less likely than with a pill, and it is absolutely mandatory in order to see the beneficial, often life saving effects of bisphosphonate treatment. Aside from this, many people report not being able to inject themselves, and few people have someone on hand who can administer drugs for them. Perhaps they need to make an epipen type solution for this drug, the problem is that while epipens go intramuscularly, so you just have to jam it in and then that is that, this drug needs to be consumed intravenously, and finding a vein can be difficult, especially if you do not have any practice.

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