INTRODUCTION

The oral health of psoriatic patients seems to be compromised compared to that of control individuals: many published studies have investigated the relationship between psoriatic disease and gingivitis, periodontitis, and missing teeth. However, data from these studies are not consistent nor exhaustive. Moreover, no study has considered the possible specific effects of conventional and biological systemic psoriatic treatments.

OBJECTIVE

We report a narrative review of the literature about the possible link between anti-psoriatic drugs and oral disease onset and present case series of patients that have experienced oral disease during systemic therapy for psoriasis.

METHODS

This is a narrative review. The literature search was performed using the MEDLINE database. From the selected articles, additional references were identified by a manual search among the cited literature.

RESULTS

Oral adverse events during psoriatic therapies can be found in sporadic cases. The specific mechanisms of interplay between oral anatomic structures and the pathway targeted by the systemic agents will be investigated in depth.

CONCLUSION

All psoriatic patients who are candidates for conventional or biological systemic therapy should have regular oral health check-ups with a dentist and a dermatologist to prevent oral complications. Dermatologists and oral medicine specialists should be ready to recognize and manage this increasing number of oral adverse drug reactions during systemic treatments for psoriatic disease so as to provide patients with sufficient information about this risk and to stress the fundamental importance of regular dental assessments and good oral hygiene.