Saturday Quack – Fossy-Jaw Scare Overrated

A year ago I wrote about the risk of fossy-jaw in people taking medications for osteoporosis – Fosamax®, Actonel®, or Boniva® - to prevent bone fractures. I gave a link to a lawyer’s firm that was seeking victims willing to make a claim against drug companies selling bisphosphonates. It seems the whole theory was premature. The association between those taking one of these drugs and the occurrence of fossy-jaw was, like many such associations, merely ‘circumstantial evidence’.

Dr Athanasios Zavras of Harvard School of Dental Medicine, looked closer at the problem. After analyzing medical claims from over 700,000 patients, he concluded that oral osteoporosis medications seem to actually reduce the risk of jaw degradation. He published his findings in the Journal of the American Dental Association.

Based on the records examined, Zavras and his colleagues were able to see if the patients with jaw degradation had taken oral bisphosphonates, intravenous bisphosphonates, or no such drugs at all. Those who took the oral drugs were slightly less likely to have jaw effects than those not taking bisphosphonates at all. But intravenous bisphosphonates significantly increased a person’s risk of jaw degradation, both in cancer patients and those with osteoporosis.

The good news here is for the thousands and thousands of women who take one or another bisphosphonate drug to help fight osteoporosis. While this study, too, is merely circumstantial evidence, it counteracts the original alarm that was raised over a year ago. No need for these patients to fear that their drug is going to make their jaws disintegrate.