From October 19 to 21, the XXIV National HIDES Conference will be held at the Palacio de Congresos de Gijón. This conference, open to Europe, will boast an unbeatable level of training, with both Spanish and international speakers covering all areas of the oral hygiene field. 

Within an extensive scientific programme, more than 25 presentations, workshops and round table discussions, various techniques and diverse current issues will be presented, such as the prevention of oral cancer or digital impression-taking. Here, we summarise one of the lectures offered by Professor Gerardo Gómez-Moreno: The interaction between foods and medicines of interest in dentistry. 

Interaction between foods and medicines 

The influence of food on the effect of medicine, as well as the impact certain drugs have on nutrition has had little attention in clinical research, nor have they been given the importance they deserve in daily dental practice. 

Food and drug interactions pose a serious problem, since in many cases they can cause unexpected serious adverse reactions and alterations in drug response. 

Therefore, dental professionals need to ask patients about their eating habits, diet or nutritional state before providing dental treatment and take this information into account when planning this treatment regime to avoid possible complications. 

In today’s society, where life expectancy is growing, and where patients who seek dental treatment receive more and more drugs for longer periods of time and who at the same time in many cases present nutritional imbalance, the need for dental professionals to be aware of food and drug interactions is not surprising. 

For more information: www.hides2012.com