Objectives: Current recommendations for safe and effective dental management are less than optimal for some medical conditions because of limited evidence, conflicting conclusions, or both. This review (1) compiled and evaluated dental management recommendations for select medical conditions; (2) summarized recommendations and their assigned levels of evidence; (3) identified areas of conflict, ambiguity, or both; and (4) identified issues that warrant future research, enhanced consensus statements, or both.
Study design: Systematic literature searches were performed for guideline publications, systematic and narrative reviews, and opinion documents containing recommendations for (1) medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ); (2) cardiovascular diseases (CVDs); (3) prosthetic joints (PJs); and (4) systemic steroid therapy (SST).
Results: The search yielded the following numbers of publications that met the inclusion criteria: MRONJ - 116; CVDs - 54; prosthetic joints - 39; and systemic steroids - 12.
Conclusions: Very few of the compiled recommendations were assigned or linked to levels of evidence by their authors. Key conclusions include the following: MRONJ-expert recommendations trend toward proceeding with dental treatment with little to no modification in osteoporotic patients on bisphosphonates; CVDs-current recommendations are primarily directed to general surgery and applied to dentistry; PJs-routine antibiotic prophylaxis is not indicated for dental treatment; and SST-steroid supplementation is not indicated for most patients undergoing dental procedures under local anesthesia.
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