ABSTRACT

Medical status of 1546 subjects attending the oral diagnostic clinic at the dental school of the University of Jordan was examined by a structured verbal interview by the author. Significant medical histories and/ or current drug therapies of relevance to the practice of dentistry were found in 21.9% and 10.1% respectively. Medical problems identified included hypertension (6%), drug allergies (5%), diabetes mellitus (3.6%), arthritis (2.4%), heart disease (1.7%), peptic ulcer (1.3%), bronchial asthma (1.2%), neurological disease (0.6%), thyroid disease (0.4%) and blood disorder (0.2%). The prevalence of significant medical histories increased with increasing age and in many categories the number of females was greater than males.