The effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors on the human mandible

Objectives Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) are a group of drugs that selectively and strongly block the serotonin transporter. Aim of this study was to evaluate the mandibular bone structure of patients who are using SSRIs with fractal analysis and panoramic morphometric indices [mandibular cortical width (MCW), panoramic mandibular index (PMI) and Klemetti index (KI)] and to compare with control group. Methods Patients who declared using SSRIs for more than six months had been included in the study group. In total, 212 dental panoramic radiographs (DPR) were assessed. For fractal analysis; three regions of interest (ROIs) were determined: ROI1 and ROI2 were chosen within trabecular bone, ROI3 was selected from cortical bone. MCW, PMI, and KI were obtained from DPRs. The study group was categorized into five subgroups of various SSRIs. The fractal dimension (FD) values and panoramic morphometric indices of these subgroups were also compared. Results There was no significant difference between the groups for age and gender (p = 0.57, p = 0.5). There were significant differences in the mean FD values between the study and control groups both for the ROI1 and ROI2 (p < 0.01, p < 0.01). There was no significant difference between the groups for the mean FD value of ROI3, MCW, PMI and KI (p = 0.93, p = 0.98, p = 0.74, p = 0.06). There were no significant differences for all the values between the SSRI subgroups (p = 0.52, p = 0.7, p = 0.76, p = 0.24, p = 0.31, p = 0.08) Conclusions Trabecular rich sites of the mandible were found to be affected by SSRI usage.