Fosamax: The Pain nearly Killed Me

Cal Nev Ari, NVSophie only took Fosamax for one year to help with the osteoporosis in her back; that was back in 1997. Little did she know the drug's side affects would cause constant pain.

"I started having jaw problems," says Sophie Lewis (not her real name). "But I've had dentures since I was 15 years old because of a kidney infection that spread to my gums, so I thought the problems were with my dentures. I went in and had a new set of dentures made, but that didn't fix the pain."

Her jaw began to feel weaker while she was taking Fosamax, but it got progressively worse until 2003 when the pain became unbearable. "I sounded like I was cold all the time because my teeth were chattering constantly," Sophie says. "I learned how to compensate, so my teeth aren't always chattering, but there are other problems now. My jaw, when I start to close it, wants to continue closing harder and harder.

I saw an implant dentist who said that there's not a lot of jawbone left. Sore spots in my jaw don't heal and there's always movement in mouth. When I'm tired, the pain is much worse, but there's a constant pain. It's been one problem after another, and they still don't have the problem fixed."

Sophie believed the problem was related to her dentures, until her dentist suggested the problem had to do with Fosamax. "He couldn't figure out why nothing we did would stop the pain and nothing explained my problems. It didn't make sense to him. Then he asked me if I'd ever been on Fosamax. I said 'yes' and he told me that all of my symptoms and problems are consistent with those of people who have been on Fosamax. So I went to see my doctor, but all she did was send me back to my dentist."

Sophie had implants, which are screws designed to anchor the bottom part of a denture, put into her mouth to help with the pain, but they have caused even more problems. "The implants don't heal right," she says. "The first implants I had put in, the pain nearly killed me. I lost so much weight I was down to around 82 lbs."

"It's like I have no control over what my jaws do. They shiver and shake and I have problems biting down. My job requires talking, but I have a lot of trouble with that because of the pain. I have problems eating too, because it takes a lot of time to chew something. My jaws come to a stop and then I have to wait for them to get going again. When I started having this pain I had to eat soft things, so I ate a lot of mush."

Not only is Sophie in pain, but her troubles have cost her a lot of money. "This has been a costly nightmare," she says. "From December until now, I've put around $25,000 to $26,000 into my mouth. Implants won't work because they don't heal and they cause me pain. Pain pills are the only thing I can take, but when my dentures are in I'm always in pain."

"It's been a hard three years," Sophie says. "I wish there was some way to fix it, but everything we've tried has failed."

Fosamax is prescribed to increase bone density but can cause osteonecrosis, otherwise known as bone death, of the jaw. Osteonecrosis causes severe infections, swelling, and loosening of the teeth. Furthermore, bone tissue does not heal after minor traumas such as dental extractions. Many osteonecrosis patients require either long-term antibiotic therapy or surgery to remove dying bone tissue. Since 2001, over 2,400 patients taking bone building drugs have reported osteonecrosis.

Lawsuits filed against Merck, the makers of Fosamax, claim that Merck knew that Fosamax was associated with osteonecrosis of the jaw, but failed to warn consumers of that risk.