Treatment with an antiviral drug after dental work may decrease levels of herpesviruses in saliva, according to researchers in the May 2005 issue of Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
Researchers from University of Kentucky College of Medicine and College of Dentistry in Lexington conducted a study to understand the factors that influence the appearance of Heydrich, D.M.D., contained an error. The labels for parts C and D of the figure were switched. The corrected figure and figure legend appear below. human herpesviruses (HHVs) in saliva. They examined the prevalence, pattern and quantity of all eight HHVs in the saliva of immunocompetent adults. Who have a history of recurrent oral herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections after dental treatment and after antiviral therapy.
In a randomized, double-blind controlled trial, researchers administered the antiviral drug valacyclovir or a matched placebo to 125 patients twice on the day of dental treatment and twice the day after treatment. They collected saliva samples from the patients on the day of treatment and three and seven days after treatment and tested the samples for all eight HHVs: HSV-1, HSV-2, HHV-6, HHV-7, HHV-8, Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalo virus and varicella-zoster virus.
Over the course of the week, researchers detected the DNA of HHV-6 and HHV-7 significantly more often than that of Epstein-Barr virus, HSV-1, HSV-2, HHV-8, cytomegalovirus and varicella-zoster virus, irrespective of drug treatment. They found that dental treatment did not influence asymptomatic viral shedding patterns. Valacyclovir treatment, however, resulted in significantly fewer patients shedding EBV at both postoperative visits than did the placebo treatment.
"These results suggest that HHVs are simultaneously present in the saliva of healthy adults at levels that could facilitate transmission, and valacyclovir therapy decreases the prevalence of EBV in saliva but has little effect on HHV-6 and HHV-7," wrote the researcher team, which was led by Craig S. Miller, Ph.D.
