Dental Material Allergy Or Something Else?

Dentist, have you experienced the below situation? Your patients complain that they have a burning mouth, issues with tasting food, dry mouth, or other symptoms after they had the dental restoration done. The first thought is that the patient might have an allergy to the material, right? A new study is here to suggest that might not always be the case. Researchers studied more than 600 patients who came in for a “specialized consultation on suspected adverse effects from dental materials.” They noted the patients' age, sex, subjective complaints, allergies, and dental and orofacial findings. The patient group was about 80% female with a median age of 58. The three most cited subjective complaints were the following: Burning mouth (43.8%), Taste disorders (28.8%), Dry mouth (22.7%).

Allergies toward dental materials were found in 12.3%. In 28.0% of the patients, no dental or orofacial findings with relevance for the subjective complaints expressed by the patients could be found. 19.8% of the patients exhibited relevant functional symptoms, 16.2% relevant orofacial diseases, 15.2% relevant mechanical irritations, 10.1% or 9.4% relevant tooth-related or plaque-related symptoms, respectively, 9.4% hyposalivation, and in 7.2% relevant manufacturing faults were found.

This study means even if almost 30% of patients have no 'dental or orofacial findings with relevance", that means more than 70% do. This study can be a helpful guide to treatment planning and conversation when a patient cites" subjective complaints" after treatment

Resources: //pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34218932/