Original Research Article DOI: 10.18231/2394-2797.2017.0013 International Journal of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Analysis, 4(2):51-53 51 Complementary and alternative medicine: A new vista in dental management Akansha Budakoti 1,* , Upasana Sethi Ahuja 2 , Siddharth Srivastava 3 , Akshay Rathore 4 , Parul Tikoo Dhar 5 1,5 PG Student, 2 Professor & HOD, 3,4 Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Oral Medicine & Radiology, ITS-Centre for Dental Studies & Research, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh *Corresponding Author: Email: budakoti09@gmail.com Abstract Introduction: Since the dawn of civilization, mankind has been plagued by pathogen and its ensuing disease process and to overcome the outcome of the disease, various medical therapies have been formulated over the time. With the evident of medical therapies various side effects of the drugs used have come up and to overcome those side effects complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has evolved. Aim: The goal of this study is to examine the relationship between the disease condition and the usage of the CAM therapy among the general population. Materials and Method: The CAM encompassed number of therapies so, the survey instrument is a self modified designs questionnaire based on previous studies carried out in the literature. Questionnaire will be filled by the patients visiting a dental school with any dental problem. First part of survey instrument incorporates questions regarding demographic characteristics. While the second part of survey consisted of 17 medical /dental conditions for which the patient visited a dental college and have approached for the management of these diseases. Results: More than half respondents were females(53.8%)with the common age group of 61-80 year old. The most frequent oral health problem was tooth ache (70.3%), followed by other problems and most frequently used CAM therapy was herbals. Conclusion: A large proportion of dental patients reported use of CAM- therapies .Gender and the age group was significant factor. A more refined instrument should be used for the future studies for understanding how CAM usage is associated with dental problems. Keywords: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), Dental school clinic, Dental problems, Self-medication, Prevalence. Introduction It is conspicuous from the history of palliate through medicines that traditional therapies have been thriving used for the treatment of various medical and dental condition in contrast to the conventional therapies due to its many positive impact in the history. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM),as defined by the National center for complementary and alternative medicine (NCCAM),”is a group of diverse medical and health care system, practices and products that are not presently considered to the part of conventional medicines”. (1) The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2004) differentiates five domains of complementary therapies: alternative medical systems, biologically based therapies, manipulative and body-based practices, mind – body therapies, and energy medicine. (2) The most common reason individuals choose to utilize CAM is prevention. Several additional reasons may include: ineffectiveness or dissatisfaction with biomedical medicine, enhancement of the immune system, the need for personal control over health care decisions, and lastly more accessibility than biomedical medicine. (3) In 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), illustrated that 62% of the population used a CAM therapy. (1) Although there are numerous studies regarding medical patients using CAM therapies, there is an absence of studies examining the impact of CAM remedies on dental patients. The underlying objective of this study were as follows: 1. To determines the prevalence of CAM usage among patients of a dental school. 2. To assess the usuage of CAM in the management of dental /medical conditions 3. To assess whether there were association between the presence of certain dental condition and usage of CAM therapies. Based on the results of these objectives, it would be easy to see the recommendations and side effects of CAM usages by patients coming to dental school. Materials and Method The participants for the study were randomly selected from the department of oral medicine and radiology, ITS-CDSR, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad. Ethical clearance was obtained from the institutional ethical committee. A total of 320 participants were enrolled. The participants were asked to complete a three page self structured questionnaire on complementary and alternative medicine usage. The first part of questionnaire consists of demographics data, in which the name, age, gender, eduction and annual income were incorporated. The second part consists of dental and medical conditions for which patients have been taken complementary and alternative medicine which