Some are stopping Fosamax and other osteoporosis drugs because of the risk of “jaw death”. “While bisphosphonate-related jaw death is still a rare phenomenon since first reported in 2003, researchers have documented more than 1,500 cases, most often triggered by having teeth pulled.
Less invasive dental work, such as the filling of cavities, the placing of crowns and root canals do not spawn the condition.
Why some patients develop problems and others don’t puzzles investigators. Those who develop the condition experience a lack of healing after a procedure. They are left with painful exposed bone, which becomes infected. Once jaw death begins, oral surgeons say there is little that can be done to reverse it.”
This rare complication can occur in those with multiple myeloma and other cancers in conjunction with chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Most of the instances occur in those receiving intravenous bisphosphonates.
As with all alarmist mainstream articles, it is important to weigh the rare risk of this side effect with the proven efficacy of the medication.
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Read “The myth of Osteoperosis”. This whole “disease” has been manufactured in the same labs as the dangerous drug you are all debating. I wouldn’t take ONE of those pills. Our bones are designed to change over time. Our best defense is exercise, Calcium and magnesium and vitamin D.
We all want a “wonder pill”, but guess what? There isn’t one!!! Wake up people. You are being scammed and big Pharm is getting rich off of the ignorance and pie in the sky wishes of women.
Just reading how the bone gets “better’ is sickening. Taking old bone matter and sticking back onto the existing bone?!?!?! Hello!! Would you drive around on tires that had worn off pieces of rubber stuck back on? Should we take menses(sp?) material and re-attach to our bodies…no! The process for bones is SUPPOSED to happen.
How many of you actually KNOW someone who has the hump on their back or who has died of a bone injury?
WAKE UP!!! You (and your wallets) and being scammed and Dr.s and Big Pharm is reaping the benefits…not anyone taking this dangerous drug!
I am a 60 year old active female who fractured my fibula and tibula on November 5, 2006. After surgery my surgeon informed me that while he was attempting to repair the fracture that the bone disintegrated like glass. He blamed it on the Fosamax that I have been taking for many years. Will it do me any good to stop taking Fosamax or is the irreparable damage already done to my bones for the rest of my life?
There is no guarantee taking any osteoporosis drug will prevent a fracture or break. So why load us up on more poison. I was taking it for 3 yrs and called my doctor and told her i am getting off of it. Who knows what more problems down the line it will cause. I would like to know how long it takes to get out of the body system. I have since put myself on Calcium Carbonate/D supplement.
Later in life many dental procedures may be needed for anyone and dentist will not want to perform them. Some dentists now refuse to treat a person on Fosamax. Hello, get on the back of the greedy pharmaceutical companies pushing drugs without more research to the safety of patents.
Are there any symptoms to look for that we as users can be aware of before we hit the dentist chair?
What does turn over in the jaw mean? Half life time?
From another writer: “How many of you actually KNOW someone who has the hump on their back or who has died of a bone injury?” My view: The reason you might not see alot of these people is because they are usually elderly or dead and if their bone disease has reached this level of deformity, they are usually residents of a nursing home, not people out in the communtiy. First of all, I have taken Fosamax for about 4 years, but have stopped. I am torn as my mother is in a nursing home with the BENT posture, from multiple spinal franctures. Her height went in a period of about 4 years from 5′4″ tall to about 4′5″ tall, with many complications to her functioning due to the trunk-deformity, ie: lung, stomach, intestinal crushing, etc. Her bone loss though was from extensive radiation in the 60’s due to uterine cancer at age 45, and no subsequent hormones. My Dad, at 88 broke a hip in July 1999, and was dead from the complications in 7 months, Feb. 2000. SO…there ARE bent people, and dead people from osteoporsis and its complications.
THAT SAID, I do feel that the pharmaceutical companies are cashing in on the baby-boomers who are in the menopausal age range. Fosamax was never meant as a preventative, but only for a diagnosis of actual osteoporosis and if a fracture had occured. But it is BIG money to make us think we need it as a preventative. For me, after 4 years on the drug, my scans had minimal improvement, but I had a lot of bone pain, and the onset of arthritis (?), who knows maybe caused by the Fosamax? Anyway, now with the potential jaw necrosis risk after taking it for years, I decided to stop it. Recent bone scan showed NO bone loss and I have been off it for 2 years. Am trying increased Calcium, and related supplements for absorbtion, and weight-bearing excercise, and will repeat the scan in 6 months. I am 54.
Any evidence on the effectiveness of Fortical used off-label for a pre-menopausal woman?
I’m 30 & have mild osteopenia in my femur. My MD prescribed it, but I’m not convinced. I take 1500 mg calcium citrate + D daily.
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