[Dealing with adverse drug reactions in dentistry. Procedures on encountering adverse drug reactions and goal of the Swiss Pharmacovigilance system].

Dentists may be confronted with adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in their dental practice, and are--like other health professionals--obliged to report certain ADRs. The aim of this article is to sensitise dentists for this topic, to show how to proceed in case of a supposed ADR, and to emphasise the importance of spontaneous reporting of ADRs. ADRs may not always be clearly distinguished from symptoms of underlying diseases, and in cases of polypharmacy multiple drugs may be responsible for the reaction. It is therefore important to get a detailed medical history, and to establish a temporal relationship between start of a therapy and appearance of the symptom. Information from the medical literature, exclusion of other possible causes, and identification of risk factors help to confirm a causal relationship between a suspected drug and an observed reaction. In Switzerland severe and unexpected ADRs have to be reported to one of the regional Pharmacovigilance centres with the yellow ADR reporting form from Swissmedic. The spontaneous reports of ADRs help to early identify new problems of a drug therapy, and permit to take measures to minimise the risk.