Happy
National Diabetes Awareness month. I bet you thought this was the
holiday season, but in the medical world illness and disease know no
seasons. Therefore, November is Diabetes awareness month. You may be
wondering why a dentist would be blogging about type II diabetes. Well,
in my case there are two reasons. First, I was diagnosed with type II
diabetes about a year and half ago (more about that in my next blog) and
second, there are substantial aspects of diabetes that affect dentistry
and often the dentist is the first medical care provider to recognize
diabetes symptoms with their patients. There are two reasons for this.
First, unfortunately, as a group we are often lax at getting regular
medical testing accomplished. I am speaking primarily to the men of
course! And second, more than half of the population visits the dentist
at least annually therefore, we have a better chance to observe the
early manifestations of diabetes.
And
what is it that we see. First, the sudden dry mouth issue that is
manifested with the decreased salivary flow and more aggressive decay
beyond which you would normally expect. Second, due to the decrease in
blood supply caused by the diabetes an increase in periodontal disease
starts generally with gingival swelling (gingivitis) and progresses to
tissue and bone loss, tooth mobility and eventual loss of teeth
(periodontitis). That loss rate can be up to 5 times greater than a
non-diabetic patient. From my own experiences do not take these early
symptoms too lightly or ignore a referral to your physician for testing.
Type II diabetes is a management issue and it can be controlled with
some effort. If not controlled, it can lead to blindness, loss of limbs,
high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks and obviously potentially
death.
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