I was surprised that JADA did not better screen Drs. Elliot Hersh’s and Paul Moore’s March JADA article, "Drug Interactions in Dentistry: The Importance of Knowing Your CYPs."
Most dentists in this country are in a constant learning mode to better equip themselves with information and skills that will help them deliver a higher quality of care to their patients. JADA helps with this process, for the most part, by presenting easily read and understood material. Such was not the case with this article. I have never in my 30 years in dentistry read a more confusing publication.
Drug interaction is a serious problem in medicine. With new prescriptions being written each year, and with more patients self-medicating with over-the-counter and herbal drugs, I am afraid we could be sitting on a potential pharmacological time bomb.
How do the authors expect us to understand and assimilate the material in such an article without an open Physicians’ Desk Reference to translate the generic names into known and recognizable medications? On top of that, I found it very confusing trying to understand exactly how the different enzymes interacted with the different drugs, and its relevance to the patient I see tomorrow morning.
I appreciate the time and effort the authors must have spent to write such an article, but it would have a better chance of being read if it were more practical and informative, instead of being esoteric and confusing.
