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Dental X-rays: New way to Detect Bone-thinning Disease

NEW YORK - A computer program that analyzes routine dental X-rays could offer an easy, cheap way to detect the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis, new study suggests.

British researchers establish that a software program they developed was capable to spot signs of declining bone density in dental X-rays of the lower jaw — a latent indication of osteoporosis.

The findings, they report, propose that regular dental X-rays could give an inexpensive way to provide wide screening of older adults for osteoporosis. Those with signs of bone thinning in the jaw could be referred for more expensive osteoporosis testing.

In the U.S., the Preventive Services Task Force advises that all women age 65 or older be screened for osteoporosis — the “gold standard” for screening is a relatively costly test called dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Medicare will pay for this test each two years.

In the United Kingdom, the national health system at this time has no program for osteoporosis screening.

That means a lot of people with the disease — the majority often older women — won’t know they have it until they endure a fracture, said Dr. Hugh Devlin of the University of Manchester, the lead author on the new study.

The study conclusion, published online in the journal Bone, are based on bone X-rays of 652 European women 45 to 70. All of the women underwent DXA, as well as panoramic dental X-rays, which show the whole jaw.

The DXA tests establish osteoporosis in the hip or spine in 140 women. Study of dental X-rays picked up more than half of these cases, the researchers found.

More effort is needed ahead of dental X-rays become part of osteoporosis screening, Devlin said. “We want to find out the approach of patients and doctors to this new role of dentists identifying patients they suspect of being at high risk of osteoporosis,” he noted.

The next step, according to Devlin, will be for an X-ray gear company to take to the idea and put together the software into its products.

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