The role of the dental surgeon in detecting osteoporosis: the OSTEODENT study.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if thinning (<3 mm width) of the lower cortical border of the mandible on dental panoramic radiographs, as well as other clinical risk factors, may provide a useful diagnostic test for osteoporosis in young postmenopausal women.


METHODS
Six hundred and fifty-two subjects (age range 45-70 years) were involved in this multi-centre, cross-sectional study.


METHODS
Patients were recruited from centres in Leuven (Belgium), Athens (Greece), Manchester (UK), and Malmo (Sweden).


METHODS
The subject's age, body weight, whether the patient took hormone replacement therapy or had a history of low trauma fracture were used to form a clinical osteoporosis risk assessment (the OSteoporosis Index of RISk or OSIRIS index). Each patient also received a dental panoramic radiographic examination.


RESULTS
One hundred and forty subjects had osteoporosis involving at least one of the measurement sites (lumbar spine, femoral neck or total hip). Those with osteoporosis tended to have a low OSIRIS score and a thinned cortical mandibular border. The area under the ROC curve for using both cortical width and OSIRIS to predict osteoporosis was 0.90 (95% CI = 0.87 to 0.92). There was a significant improvement in the diagnostic ability of the combined OSIRIS and cortical width test over both tests applied separately (p <0.001). The cost effectiveness of the cortical width and OSIRIS model was improved by using a high specificity threshold rather than high sensitivity. However, this analysis ignores the costs associated with missed cases of osteoporosis.


CONCLUSIONS
Dentists have a role to play in the detection and referral of patients at high risk of osteoporosis.
Devlin
H
H
School of Dentistry, University of Manchester. hugh.devlin@manchester.ac.uk
Allen
P
P
Graham
J
J
Jacobs
R
R
Nicopoulou-Karayianni
K
K
Lindh
C
C
Marjanovic
E
E
Adams
J
J
Pavitt
S
S
van der Stelt
P
P
Horner
K
K
D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon; D000368:Aged; D015519:Bone Density; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008334:Mandible / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics; D008875:Middle Aged; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D012372:ROC Curve; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D011861:Radiography, Dental / Q000191:economics; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic / Q000191:economics; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric