Have you worried about osteoporosis medications (bisphosphonates) and jaw infections? The director of the Osteoporosis Center at the U of Cincinatti says the media may be over-reacting. " Bisphosphonates are used to treat skeletal complications of malignancy, at doses that are 10 times higher than the doses used to treat osteoporosis. About 95% of cases of osteonecrosis of the jaw are in patients who are receiving these very high doses of bisphosphonates for cancer complications. If these drugs weren't being used for that purpose, the incidence of jaw problems in patients receiving treatment for osteoporosis is so small that I doubt that anybody would have ever put the two together." Most importantly, here's the bottom line-"... for the average patient with osteoporosis the risk for getting a serious fracture, such as hip fracture, is orders of magnitude higher than the risk for having a rare complication, such as osteonecrosis of the jaw." More research is being done. For now, don't let the media scare you into stopping your osteoporosis meds. My mother takes the injected one.
