Stacked Scripts, Stacked Risks: A Critical Look at Polypharmacy in a Dental School Setting
Marquez IC1*, Castillo-Astorga Y2, Chaudhary S2, Fernandez L2, Khan BT2
1Associate Professor, AT Still University School of Dentistry and Oral Health, Saint Louis, MO. 63104, USA.
2Fourth year student, AT Still University School of Dentistry and Oral Health, Saint Louis, MO. 63104, USA.
*Corresponding Author: Ignacio Christian Marquez, DDS, MS, Associate Professor, AT Still University School of Dentistry and Oral Health, Saint Louis, MO 63104, USA.
https://doi.org/10.58624/SVOADE.2026.07.031
Received: June 17, 2026
Published: July 20, 2026
Citation: Marquez IC, Castillo-Astorga Y, Chaudhary S, Fernandez L, Khan BT. Stacked Scripts, Stacked Risks: A Critical Look at Polypharmacy in a Dental School Setting. SVOA Dentistry 2026, 7:4, 232-240. doi: 10.58624/SVOADE.2026.07.031
Abstract
Objectives: Polypharmacy is defined as the concurrent use of five or more medications, a common finding in the adult and elderly populations. The aim of this project was to retrospectively determine the prevalence of polypharmacy among four hundred adult and elderly patients of record in a dental school.
Methods: Subject’s privacy was obtained through strict anonymization protocols and secure data handling. More specifically, our project sought to identify those medical conditions, medical patterns, and demographic factors most associated with polypharmacy. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and logistic regression methods were employed for data analysis.
Results: Overall the prevalence of polypharmacy was 44.3% (n=177); when it comes to age and gender, polypharmacy was present in 25.8% (n=56) of patients younger than age 50 versus 66.1% (n=121) in patients older than age 50, p <0.001; in terms of gender, polypharmacy was present in 43.4% (n=96) of women versus 45.3% (n=81) among men, p (0.72). The three most common systemic conditions present among our study population were cardiovascular diseases, endocrine and metabolic conditions, and psychiatric disorders, which presented 40.5%, 30.5%, and 21.3% respectively. Medication pattern analysis showed that atorvastatin (24%), acetylsalicylic acid (21%), amlodipine (19%), lisinopril (18%), and metformin (18%) were by far the most frequently taken drugs.
Conclusion: The findings of this research project proved that polypharmacy is quite prevalent among dental school patients and should bring insight for dental professionals by contributing to a better understanding of it in dental settings, thus supporting improved patient management and treatment planning.
Keywords: Polypharmacy, Prevalence, Adults, Dental School Clinic.
