Six Things Your Dentist Should Do If You Have Diabetes

Here are the things you should be able to expect your dentist to do as part of your routine oral health care. Because you have diabetes, you may be at risk of significant health problems from the interactions between diabetes and unchecked gum disease, ranging from mouth pain and tooth loss to life-threatening catastrophic events such as heart attack and stroke.

1. Your dentist should know about your diabetes and at each visit spend some time discussing how you are managing it and the level of control you have over the disease.

2. Your dentist should work with you closely on monitoring your health and your oral health if you have prediabetes.

3. Make sure your dentist adapts his or her diagnostic process when giving you your regular check ups to include baseline data about your diabetes and to evaluate how that’s affecting your oral health.

4. Insist on open communications between your dentist and your physician.

5. Your dentist should be committed to staying up to date on the latest research results on the connection between diabetes and oral infection and inflammation.

6. Talk with your dentist about the level of treatment you may need to get your gum disease and the level of bacteria in your system under control.