title: Medical conditions and medication use in a U.S. dental school clinic population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the study was to characterize coexisting medical conditions and medication use in patients treated at a US dental school in 2010 and to assess their implications on providing dental care.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data on the types and prevalence of self-reported medical conditions and the use of medications were extracted from the electronic health records of 1797 adult patients and compared against their socioeconomic status (SES).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Within this sample, 8.7% were classified as American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status (PS) 1. The remainder were designated PS 2 to PS 4 for smoking, having one or more medical conditions that ranged from myasthenia gravis (<1%) to hypertension (24%), or both. Medications for hypertension were the most frequently reported (23%), followed by more than 40 other classes of drugs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dental practitioners must be prepared to treat larger numbers of older patients, whose life expectancies continue to increase as advances in pharmacotherapeutics and biomedical technologies improve the control of their chronic medical conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, School of Dental Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA. Electronic address: guggen@pitt.edu.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guggenheimer
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Diagnostic Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, School of Dental Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Bilodeau
authors.affiliation: Bradford Dental Center, Bradford Regional Medical Center, Bradford, PA.
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Barket
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003740:Dental Clinics; D004358:Drug Therapy; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010414:Pennsylvania / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012575:Schools, Dental; D057566:Self Report; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires