Harvard Dentists Begin Testing New Drug, Hope to Prove it Will Prevent Tooth Loss

BOSTON A powerful form of a newly approved over the counter painkiller dramatically reduces one form of dental disease in animals and researchers soon hope to learn if it will save people's teeth.

An experiment begins this month to see if daily doses of the drug, called ibuprofen can slow or stop periodontal disease, the number one dental problem of adulthood.

This condition erodes the hope that supports the teeth and is a major cause of tooth loss. In the United States, an estimated 94 million people have periodontal disease, and it is one of humanity's most common infections.

In the new study at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, volunteers will take a medicine called flurbiprofen Harvard researchers already have found that the drug can reduce bone loss around the teeth by 66 percent in dogs which are often used to study periodontal disease.

Flurbiprofen is a more potent version of ibuprofen, which was approved in May for over the counter sales and was used in prescription form since 1974 to treat arthritis pain and other problems.

Like aspirin, ibuprofen and flurbiprofen are classified as non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs which stop the swelling and redness of bodily injury.

Eating Away

Doctors believe the same response to injury. When caused by some dental bacteria, eats away the bone around the teeth. So their strategy is to save the teeth by the thwarting one of the body reactions to infection.

"I am optimistic that flurbiprofen and other not yet tested, non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs will prove to be an effective way of slowing down bone loss around the teeth." said Assistant Professor of Periodontology Ray C. Williams, who is conducting the research with Marjorie Jeffcoat, also an assistant professor of Periodontology.

Fluribiprofen has not been approved for routine use in the United States. It has been available in Europe for about a decade. It is among the most powerful non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs known.

The researchers plan to recruit 60 adults with advanced bone loss that doesn't respond to ordinary treatment. They will take two pills a day, and the experiment will last for one and a half to three years.

Periodontal disease is caused by bacteria that live underneath the gums. The germs injure the tissue, and one of the body's responses appears to be the production of arrachidonic acid. Then enzymes turn this acid into three chemicals-prostaglandins, prostacyclines and thromboxane-and scientists believe that, among other things, these chemicals inflame the gums and erode the bone around the teeth.

Flurbiprofen and similar drugs block one of the enzymes that are necessary for all this to happen. And the researchers think this is how the medicine preserved the dog's teeth.