Doctors And Dentists Need To Work Together

Dentists play a key role in screening patients for many disorders relative to nutrition and in providing appropriate referrals into the health care system. Although the importance of integrating diet and nutrition guidance into dental care has been advocated for decades by educators, it continues to be ignored except by a handful of prevention-oriented practitioners.
Many of the world’s most significant health problems are linked to poor dietary practices, including over-nutrition and under-nutrition. Nutrition plays a fundamental role in health, and dental professionals have the opportunity to be a critical link between discovery and wellness.
There is a great deal of evidence linking oral infections, including periodontal disease, nutrition and immunological response. We have clear evidence linking oral disease with adverse pregnancy outcomes, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke. In addition, obesity, which is an epidemic facing our country, is significantly affecting the incidence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and overall lifespan. We know there are direct connections between these problems and oral disease. What is the role of the dentist? Should the dentist just be a tooth fixer?
As the body of data linking systemic health conditions and oral infection grows, the expanding understanding of the gene-nutrient reaction may result in more profound discoveries. As of now, many dentists fail to fully appreciate that the scientific bridge between oral disease and systemic health is often mediated by diet and nutrition.
The beneficiary of this profound evidence should be you, the dental patient. It should not only be the responsibility of the physician or specialized nutritionist to incorporate this information into practice. The dentist should be playing a key role.
For the most part, the dentist is the only one who examines the mouth. It used to be that the dentist only looked at the teeth and only fixed problems if the arose. By now, most dentists screen for periodontal, or gum, problems as well as oral cancer. The trend is to address these problems earlier than ever before.
Patients will often say to me, “I’ve been going to the dentist all my life. Why have you or any other dentist never said anything about that before?” I always use the analogy of cholesterol. It used to be that 250 was the number to be at or under. As evidence grew that cholesterol plays a more significant role than thought before, that number quickly dropped below 200. People tend to have ingrained in their head that the dentist just looks at the teeth and treatment should be the same as 25 years ago.
As science continues and evidence grows, things change. It is the responsibility of all health care providers to work towards a more integrated health care system.