USE of Alternative and Complementary MEDICINE in Treatment Oral Diseases

Objectives:Identifying frequency of alternative and complimentary medicine in oral affection treatment

Methods:The questionaire was applied in 116 patients of a dental service, of different age groups and school level; different options of alternative and complimentary medicine were used. Afterwards, statistically program SPSS was used on its version 11.0 for windows for information and recolection analysis.

Analysis was done of socialdemographic data frequency of alternative and complimentary medicine data frequency. Later, variables were crossed for graphics and tables to present results. Descriptive statistics were used for frequency and percentage determination for a statistic slant of p<0.05

Results:Iit was found that 80.2% of surveyed population has used alternative medicine to keep good health and resolve some dlisease the same way he has used in dental service, herbolary being the most used as high as 78.4% to alleviate pain, followed by 49.4% for inflammatory problems and gingival bleeding, 38% uses for bad breath, 24.3% for pus and infection, 12.1 for sensitive teeth and 1.8 for teeth with cavities.

Discussion: Use of medicine and complimentary medicine is undeniable for oral affections treatment; its used speaks of 69.8% coming from family recommendations 100% for its public availability, 60.4% because it considers them of low risk, non the less 62.9% won't tell their dentist of its use, main reasons are in a 25% attribute to shame and 19% to fear

Conclusions:Given high frequency of alternative and complimentary medicine in oral affection treatment it must be consider odontologic personel instruction in its use and risk factor when combining with conventional treatments in the dental service.

Keywords; alternative medicine and oral affections.

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