The purpose of this study was to access current medication usage by HIV/AID
S patients and its effects on dental caries and on unstimulated salivary fl
ow rates. Thirty females and 127 males (mean age = 39.6 +/- 7.4 years), of
whom 46% were White/Non-Hispanic, 39% African-American, and 15% Hispanic, w
ere examined and interviewed at the Bering Dental Clinic, Houston, Texas. T
he mean time in years after seroconversion was 5.4 +/- 4.1. Calibrated exam
iners performed dental caries examination (DMFS) with dental explorers and
bitewing radiographs. Interviews were carried out with pretested questionna
ires, and medication usage was assessed by illustrative examples of HIV/AID
S medications. Salivary flow rates were determined gravimetrically (mL/min)
. Bivariate analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze
the data. Because there were no race or gender effects on dental caries out
come variables or salivary flow rates, separate logistic regression models
for medication usage were generated, which were adjusted for age and CD4(+)
cell counts. Patients who, currently, were receiving antiretroviral therap
y (ART) had a lower occurrence of dental caries than patients not taking th
ese medications. An unexpected finding in the lower caries rate group was a
decrease in salivary flow rates, which was a probable oral side effect of
ART. It appears from this cross-sectional study that systemic medication fo
r the management of HIV disease has no significant detrimental effect on th
e dentition.