Painful Menstruation, Purging Linked to Dental Damage

Abdominal cramps led to purging of stomach contents

TUESDAY, Nov. 18 (HealthDay News) -- An unusual case of dental damage due to painful menstruation shows the importance of doing a thorough examination and taking a detailed patient health and dental history, according to a case report in the November/December issue of General Dentistry.

Mohamed A. Bassiouny, D.M.D., Ph.D., from Temple University in Philadelphia, described the case of a 57-year-old woman with dental erosion. A health history revealed that the woman had a uterine tumor that had been removed 32 years earlier.

The patient had excruciating painful abdominal cramps associated with menstruation that were consistently accompanied by forceful purging of the stomach contents. The author notes that clinical manifestations and radiographic images of dental erosion, as well as the mechanism, force, direction and frequency of purging, are similar to those caused by bulimia nervosa.

"The process of identifying, differentially diagnosing, and finally determining the etiology of the erosion lesions was based on an in-depth knowledge of systemic disorders, recognition of various characteristics and causes of erosion lesions, and an accurately detailed systemic and dental health history," Bassiouny concludes.

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