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Case Reports
. 2017 May-Jun;49(3):257-259.
doi: 10.4103/ijp.IJP_57_17.

Gingival hyperplasia: Should drug interaction be blamed for?

Pramod Kumar Sharma  1 , Arup Kumar Misra  1 , Ankita Chugh  2 , Vinay Kumar Chugh  2 , Nitesh Gonnade  3 , Surjit Singh  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Gingival hyperplasia: Should drug interaction be blamed for?

Pramod Kumar Sharma et al. Indian J Pharmacol. 2017 May-Jun.

Abstract

Gingival overgrowth (GO) is one of the common findings in clinical practice. There could be several causes including drugs associated with the GO. Carbamazepine (CBZ) and amlodipine are the drugs which are infrequently documented as a cause in inducing the gingival hyperplasia. Certain drugs in the body fluid might limit the population of plaque bacteria and alter their metabolism that in turn induce the inflammatory mediators and also activate the genetic and biochemical factors responsible for gingival fibroblast growth. Drug-induced GO is a side effect with a multifactorial etiology that seems to orchestrate the interaction between drugs and fibroblasts in the gingiva. We describe a case of trigeminal neuralgia with hypertension treated with multiple drugs including amlodipine and CBZ. Although amlodipine is known to be infrequently associated with GO, an association of CBZ with GO is even rarer. Causality analysis on the World Health Organization Uppsala Monitoring Centre's scale indicates a probable association with offending drugs.

Keywords: Amlodipine; carbamazepine; gingival overgrowth; pharmacovigilance.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
First episode due to amlodipine
Figure 2
Figure 2
Resolution after the first episode
Figure 3
Figure 3
Second episode of flare-up due to carbamazepine
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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