Dental medicine and medicine
Perrier, M.
Revue Medicale de la Suisse Romande 122(10): 495-498
2002
ISSN/ISBN: 0035-3655 PMID: 12494782 Document Number: 550121
The objective of "oral medicine" is to integrate medical knowledge and dental knowledge. This article emphasizes the importance of such integration in the management of medically compromised patients by the dentist. The aging population and the increasing number of medically compromised patients result in a situation where the dentist must adapt the diagnosis ant the treatment of oral lesions to both the patient general history and the patient medication history. The main systemic diseases affecting oral health are reviewed, emphasizing the care required by this category of patients, the importance of links between medicine and dentistry and the requirements for graduate and postgraduate education in comprehensive medicine.