Correlation Between the Oral Manifestations of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients on Different Treatments with The Clinical Disease Activity

Abstract

Objective:Toevaluate the oral findings and correlating the oral findings with the clinical disease activity index. Subjects, Materials and Methods:This cross-sectional studyincludedeighty-five rheumatoid arthritis patients. Twenty-five patients were on Methotrexate, thirty patients on Etanercept and thirty patients were on a combination of Methotrexate and Etanercept. Each patient was examined to calculate the clinical disease activity index and to detect any oral finding. Results: The highest summation of rheumatoid arthritis patients was presented with a high clinical disease activity index, while the number of those with low disease activity index was the lowest. Oral dryness showed to be the most common oral findings (60%) followed by tempromandibular joint disorders (31.8%) then aphthous ulcerations (9.4%) and glossitis (5.8%), while the lichenoid drug reaction, angular chelitis and geographic tongue were the less commonly seen findings (1.1% for each). Most of the oral findings were seen in patients treated with Etanercept or Methotrexate alone, while the patients treated with a combination of them had less oral side effects. A higher number of rheumatoid arthritis patients with oral findings were showing high and moderate disease activity. Conclusions: The oral dryness, tempromandibular joint disorders and aphthous ulcerations were the main oral manifestations found in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Angular chelitis positively correlate with the increasing in the clinical disease activity.