CONTRACEPTIVE pills can damage women鈥檚 gums, a study by dental researchers in
Britain and Sri Lanka has shown. One Pill manufacturer shown the study by
New 杏吧原创 says it is considering sponsoring research to gauge the
extent of the problem among users.
Preliminary results from the study, presented on 8 November at a meeting of
the British Society for Endocrinology in London, suggest that gingivitis, an
inflammation of the gums, is unusually common in women taking the combined oral
contraceptive Pill. 鈥淭here could be quite obvious gum inflammation in Pill
takers who neglect dental hygiene,鈥� warns Mena Soory, a periodontology expert at
the Guy鈥檚, King鈥檚 and St Thomas鈥檚 Dental Institute in London.
Pregnant women are known to suffer unusually high levels of gum disease. This
is probably due to raised levels of the hormones progesterone and oestrogen
during pregnancy. The hormones dilate blood vessels and alter cells in the
lining of the gums. This aggravates and inflames the gum tissue. The symptoms
usually disappear as hormone levels subside after birth.
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Soory wondered if contraceptives containing the hormones would produce
similar or worse effects. To find out, she collaborated with Aruni Tilakaratne,
a PhD student at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. Tilakaratne recorded
the amount of gum disease in 49 Sri Lankan women who had taken the Pill for
between 2 and 4 years. Most of the women took a modern, low-dose combined Pill
containing both hormones, and a few took a higher dose preparation containing
progesterone alone.
Gingivitis was 32 per cent more common in these women than in the control
group of 39 women who did not take the Pill. The symptoms were worst in women
who had most bacterial plaque on their teeth. 鈥淭he plaque may be the trigger
that magnifies the inflammation,鈥� says Soory.
Other measurements showed that gaps between the teeth and gums of the Pill
takers were on average 2.4 times as large as in non-users. But the differences
only amounted to fractions of a millimetre鈥攆ar smaller than the
3-millimetre gap that requires surgical cleaning of roots. 鈥淚t would take a very
long time to get appreciable disease,鈥� says Soory.
Tilakaratne also found that pregnant women do not have the abnormally wide
gaps between teeth and gums seen in Pill takers. Soory speculates that this
extra damage occurs in Pill takers because they are exposed to the hormones for
years. She recommends strict dental hygiene for Pill users. 鈥淢aintain regular
dental check-ups and increase hygiene at home,鈥� she says. 鈥淏rush twice a day and
floss before bed.鈥�
Organon, a major manufacturer of oral contraceptive pills in Oss, the
Netherlands, has held internal meetings to discuss the issue. 鈥淭his area really
is starting now,鈥� says Bjorn Oddens of Organon. 鈥淲e鈥檙e still wondering what
we鈥檒l do.鈥�
Other experts reacted with surprise to the findings. 鈥淚鈥檝e never heard that
reported anywhere else,鈥� says Michael Harper, a contraceptives researcher at the
Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia. But if it鈥檚 true, he adds,
the damage should get worse with time.