Gingival effects of prescription medications among adult dental patients.

The relationship between self-reported medication use (exposure to one or more drugs with anticipated gingival effect--antidepressants, diuretics, antihypertensives, hormones) and four measures of gingival conditions (plaque index, gingival index, calculus index, maximum CPITN score) was examined among 594 patients in 35 dental practices in two North Carolina counties. Patients with long-term medication use were compared to patients without long-term use on four measures of gingival condition. When controlling for sex and age within age group, medication use was a significant predictor (P less than 0.05) for elevated gingival and plaque index scores among the white less than 65 group. For the white 65+ group (N = 90), medication use was not a significant predictor for any index score.