Epilepsy Research Paper

“Epilepsy” By: Kayla Shuman

Epilepsy is a common and diverse set of chronic neurological disorders characterized by seizures. Which also means that the person has recurrent and provoked seizures, which is a result from abnormal, excessive or hyper synchronous neuronal activity in the brain or can be easier said as episodic abnormal electrical activity in the brain . As many as two and a half million Americans have epilepsy. Thirty percent of them are children under the age of 18. And there are 125,000 newly diagnosed cases each year. In many cases a cause cannot be identified and it becomes more common as people age. It can be controlled by medication, but cannot be cured. Not all epilepsy syndromes are life-long;
The seizures are spontaneous or are triggered by different causes like : excitement , flashing lights, children with childhood absence epilepsy triggers hyperventilation , patients that have primary reading epilepsy which is triggered by reading, menstrual cycle by a woman and other different epilepsy syndromes. Epilepsy is classified by their clinical manifestations along with EEG data. The different types of epilepsy are ; Simple partial(no loss of consciousness), Complex partial ( impaired consciousness), Generalized absence( pt does not fall or convulse), generalized Tonic-Clonic (loss of consciousness and falls to ground) .Not only does this have effect on your bodily functions it also plays a big roll and danger in a dentists’ office. It defines the risk of the procedures for the patient, based primarily on the risk of seizures occurring during or shortly after the procedure, and, to a lesser degree, on the potential interaction between drugs for the procedure and for seizure control. It is important there is a well
Signs or symptoms of a pending seizure are jerking movements, daydreaming episodes, headaches, unexplained confusion, tingling or numbness feeling or feelings of electricity in part of the body or memory lapses. Patients who have epilepsy have been shown to have significantly worse dental condition than the general population. Epilepsy may affect the dental status and oral health of patients in several ways. Patients who have seizure disorders tend to have less ‘than ideal oral health, with higher numbers of decayed and missing teeth. They tend to receive less dental treatment, with significantly fewer restored and replaced teeth. Different injuries occur ; Dentofacial trauma occurring during seizures has been reported to include injuries to the tongue, buccal mucosa, facial fractures, avulsion, luxation or fractures of teeth, and subluxation of the temporomandibular joint. Generalized tonic–clonic seizures often cause minor oral injuries, such as tongue biting, but also frequently lead to tooth injuries, and in some cases to maxillofacial trauma. Children younger than 15 years constitute a large group among epileptic individuals, and a considerable proportion of them also have mental and motor deficits. newer medications that are equally effective and have fewer side effects, phenytoin remains one of the most commonly used drugs. The association of phenytoin with gingival enlargement was first described by Kimball in