Studying the effect of anabolic androgenic steroids on the oral health of athletes

Introduction: Anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) are the synthetic derivatives of testosterone hormone; which are used by athletes; in order to increase muscle size, improve physical image and increase strength. They are usually being used out of medical supervision and in high doses. The low age of the athletes using these testosterone analogs and the proven discernable effects on the body organs necessitates a study to evaluate the possible effects on the oral health. Materials and Methods: 50 male bodybuilders with the history of sports professional activity at least for one year ( experimental group) and were using anabolic androgenic steroids and 50 male bodybuilders who has not used anabolic androgenic steroids were assessed for the personal habits as: tooth brushing, use of dental floss and mouthwash and the frequency of dentist visit by fulfilling a simple questionnaire. Three indices: PUFA, DMF, and OHI-S were evaluated for both groups. Results: According to personal habits related to oral health, only there was a significant between the athletes for frequency of dentist visit ( P 0.03 ), indicating that the control group had dentist visit more frequently. According to the three indices evaluated only the OHI-S index was higher in the steroid using group ( P 0.01 ). Conclusion: As the results showed the dental caries indices: PUFA and DMF showed no significant difference among athletes; this could be due the low age of athletes using anabolic androgenic steroid and the use of these drugs out of medical supervision may suggest that long term studies are needed to verify the cariogenecity of anabolic androgenic steroids in human mouth. And the short term study showed no cariogenic effect.