[The impact of bulimia nervosa on oral health: A systematic review of the literature].

Eating disorders represent a potentially life-threatening group of mental disorders, which affect a patient's relationship with food and their body. Eating disorders manifest themselves through chaotic and disordered eating habits. One such eating disorder is bulimia nervosa, which has a lifetime prevalence of 1%. While there is consensus that bulimic behaviour directly causes dental erosion due to vomiting and acidic food choices, there is less clear evidence for a direct link between bulimia nervosa and dental caries, although there does still appear to be an association. Reduced salivary flow rate is a common feature among bulimics, but this is more often due to anti-depressant medication than dietary habits or vomiting, and the effects are largely limited to unstimulated whole salivaryflow rate and do not affect stimulated whole salivary flow rate. Parotid enlargement is present in a number of cases.