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