In the last several years, reports of patients treated with bisphosphonates (primarily those delivered intravenously) have emerged associating their use with osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ). More than a thousand cases of bisphosphonate-associated ONJ have been identified since the first cases were reported in 2001. In these, ONJ rarely occurs "spontaneously"; the vast majority have been associated as a consequence to oral surgical procedures. Although most of the reports of ONJ have occurred