Guidelines for bisphosphonate-associated osteonecrosis of the jaw.
OBJECTIVE
This guideline aimed to provide recommendations for the diagnosis of bisphosphonate-associated osteonecrosis of the jaw in both the oncology and osteoporosis patient populations, for dental and medical practitioners including dentists, oral surgeons, oral pathologists, general practitioners and internal medicine specialists. The recommendations are intended to address both prevention and treatment strategies.


METHODS
A consensus-based guideline was developed by a multidisciplinary task force including representatives from national and international societies representing the disciplines of oral surgery, dentistry, oral pathology, oral medicine, endocrinology, rheumatology and oncology. The task force reviewed data collected for a systematic review and prepared discussion papers. The systematic review included searches of Medline, Embase and a manual search of the bibliographies of published articles. A draft guideline was circulated to all members of the task force as well as external experts, and their feedback incorporated into the final document.


CONCLUSIONS
The main recommendations are summarised in Table 1. The task force also recommended that a registry be maintained for all identified cases.
Richards
Derek
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Centre for Evidence-based Dentistry, Oxford, UK.