ABSTRACT
Despite decades of research, there is not a consensus on whether patients with osteoporosis/ osteopenia are at higher risk for jaw bone resorption, periodontitis and tooth loss or not. The purpose of this study was to compare alveolar bone resorption and the number of remaining teeth between postmenopausal women with normal bone mass and postmenopausal women with low bone mass. A total of 100 volunteer women, aged from 40 to 70, who presented at Shiraz Namazi Hospital for the diagnosis of osteoporosis were selected and divided into normal and osteoporotic/osteopenic groups. Parallel periapical radiographs were taken from first and second mandibular molars on both sides using radiology device Planmeca Intra Dentsply Rinn=0.32 [KVP=60 MA=8], Ekta speed Kodak film and were digitalized using scaner [Microtek Scanmaker I 800]. Values of alveolar bone resorption were determined by measuring the distance between CEJ and the lowest point of the crest in mesial and distal areas of the mandibular first and second molars and central incisor, using the software AutoCAD [2007] with an accuracy of 0.00mm. Panoramic radiographs were used to evaluate the number of missing teeth. To evaluate bone resorption and to compare the number of the missing teeth, t-test and Mann Whitney test were used respectively. Alveolar bone resorption and the number of the remaining teeth in the postmenopausal women with or without normal bone mass in the studied groups were not different significantly. In this study, no relation was found between the number of the missing teeth/alveolar bone resorption and bone mass in postmenopausal women