Diabetes Mellitus and Periodontitis: Risks and Challenges |Biomedgrid

Diabetics are at a 3 to 4 times higher risk of developing periodontal disease than non-diabetics. For diabetics who smoke the risk is 10 times. Many doctors are not aware of this. Diabetes mellitus and periodontitis are biologically linked, the one affecting the other and vice versa although the mechanism is not fully understood. Periodontal disease adversely affects glycaemic control. However, this control improves when periodontitis is successfully treated. Doctors should consider periodontitis for those patients with high HbA1c levels. Conversely, dentists should consider diabetes or prediabetes for patients with refractory periodontal disease. The two professions need to share results. This paper proposes a simple system of scoring for each disease using a traffic light, red, amber and green method. Pending a paradigm shift in inter-professional working, diabetics themselves should take charge of their results and share them with their respective advisors. Both doctors and dentists and their teams need to understand the significance of each other's results and how they could impact on patient care. This is an educational challenge for the future for them and their patients. People living with diabetes who do not attend for dental care should be advised by their doctors about the potential benefits of dental screening.