Epilepsy Research Paper

“Epilepsy” By: Kayla Shuman

Epilepsy is a common and diverse set of chronic neurological disorders characterized by seizures. Which also means that the person has recurrent and provoked seizures, which is a result from abnormal, excessive or hyper synchronous neuronal activity in the brain or can be easier said as episodic abnormal electrical activity in the brain . As many as two and a half million Americans have epilepsy. Thirty percent of them are children under the age of 18. And there are 125,000 newly diagnosed cases each year. In many cases a cause cannot be identified and it becomes more common as people age. It can be controlled by medication, but cannot be cured. Not all epilepsy syndromes are life-long;
some forms are confined to particular stages of childhood.
The seizures are spontaneous or are triggered by different causes like : excitement , flashing lights, children with childhood absence epilepsy triggers hyperventilation , patients that have primary reading epilepsy which is triggered by reading, menstrual cycle by a woman and other different epilepsy syndromes. Epilepsy is classified by their clinical manifestations along with EEG data. The different types of epilepsy are ; Simple partial(no loss of consciousness), Complex partial ( impaired consciousness), Generalized absence( pt does not fall or convulse), generalized Tonic-Clonic (loss of consciousness and falls to ground) .Not only does this have effect on your bodily functions it also plays a big roll and danger in a dentists’ office. It defines the risk of the procedures for the patient, based primarily on the risk of seizures occurring during or shortly after the procedure, and, to a lesser degree, on the potential interaction between drugs for the procedure and for seizure control. It is important there is a well
trained staff that has the knowledge of epilepsy and what to do. They should be alert on how the patient starts to act.
Signs or symptoms of a pending seizure are jerking movements, daydreaming episodes, headaches, unexplained confusion, tingling or numbness feeling or feelings of electricity in part of the body or memory lapses. Patients who have epilepsy have been shown to have significantly worse dental condition than the general population. Epilepsy may affect the dental status and oral health of patients in several ways. Patients who have seizure disorders tend to have less ‘than ideal oral health, with higher numbers of decayed and missing teeth. They tend to receive less dental treatment, with significantly fewer restored and replaced teeth. Different injuries occur ; Dentofacial trauma occurring during seizures has been reported to include injuries to the tongue, buccal mucosa, facial fractures, avulsion, luxation or fractures of teeth, and subluxation of the temporomandibular joint. Generalized tonic–clonic seizures often cause minor oral injuries, such as tongue biting, but also frequently lead to tooth injuries, and in some cases to maxillofacial trauma. Children younger than 15 years constitute a large group among epileptic individuals, and a considerable proportion of them also have mental and motor deficits. newer medications that are equally effective and have fewer side effects, phenytoin remains one of the most commonly used drugs. The association of phenytoin with gingival enlargement was first described by Kimball in
1939 ; subsequently, many articles have reported on its incidence or severity in different populations. The literature reveals a wide variation in its incidence, ranging from 3 to 93%.The variability is primarily due to differences in criteria for assessing the severity of the hyperplasia, the different sizes and ages of studied groups, and variations in the duration and dosage of phenytoin treatment. However, it is now widely accepted that clinically significant hyperplasia is seen in about 50% of patients taking phenytoin.
Since there are different epilepsy types and conditions , patients may also have different needs in prostodontic care(Karolyhazy, et al., 2005).. In A recent analysis , it was found that a person with epilepsy have a tendency to become edentulous at a earlier age. It was also found that prostodontic treatment is suboptimal, since fewer teeth are replaced, despite the fact that eptileptic patients tend to have more missing teeth. Based on these findings, the authors suggested a classification for patients with epilepsy according to dental risk factors and dental manageability and provided recommendations for dental treatment (Aragon & Burneo, 2007). Friedlander and Cummings (Friedlander & Cummings, 1989) mentioned that in patients with epilepsy replacement of missing teeth is important to prevent the tongue from being caught in the edentulous spaces during seizures.
Orthodontic problems also occur and include recurrent aphthous-like ulcerations, gingival bleeding, hypercementosis, root shortening, anomalous tooth development, delayed eruption, and cervical lymphadenopathy (Johnstone et al., 1999) due to the medications that are taken. These are just a few examples and when it was written as a article . Many more dental problems occur with the epilepsy disease . It is very important for everybody to be aware of this disease and what all it can do you . Everybody has this disease in them since its electricity from the brain . And many do not realize when somebody is effected with this disease .

References:
Article : Epilepsy and Oral Health by Taskin Gurbuz Department of Pedodontics, Faculty of Dentistry,
Atatürk University, Erzurum
Turkey
Books : Epilepsy and the Family: A New Guide richard lechtenberg , harvard university press 1999
Web: 1) Topic Editor: Steven C. Schachter, MD and Patricia O. Shafer, RN, MN.
Last Reviewed:5/25/07 http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/warning_signs 2) http://professionals.epilepsy.com/page/procedures.html Reviewed and revised April 2004 by Steven C. Schachter, MD, epilepsy.com Editorial Board.
Slide show : Managing the Dental Patient with a Seizure Disorder Epilepsy http://www.powershow.com/view/1b4f8-MDQwM/Managing_the_Dental_Patient_with_a_Seizure_Disorder_Epilepsy_powerpoint_ppt_presentation