By Kathryn Gilliam, RDH, BA Most dental health professionals know that periodontal disease can affect their patient’s overall health. But if your patient asks you to explain how, exactly, does gum disease cause systemic illness, do you have an answer? …
A system for the link? The oral-systemic link is spilling over into multiple health-care settings
By Kathryn Gilliam, RDH, BA As more consumers learn how their oral health affects their overall health, it is imperative that dental professionals recognize their critical role in performing periodontal disease risk assessment and intervention to potentially prevent negative systemic …
Optimal Oral Health: A Key Factor in Preventing Heart Disease
By Kathryn Gilliam, RDH, BA In the dental office, we know that a robust dental hygiene department is vital for a profitable practice. We encourage our patients to make the most of their dental insurance benefits and to keep their …
Elevating Dental Care to Whole Health Care
By Kathryn Gilliam, RDH, BA One hundred million Americans are infected with periodontal disease. It is recognized to increase risk for diabetes, heart disease, stroke and other systemic diseases. Current scientific evidence links periodontal disease, in various ways, to a …
Managing Atherosclerotic Disease: Medical and Dental Collaboration- The New Standard of Care
By John Kempton, DDS, MAGD Medicine and dentistry have long been aware of the connection, association, and direct links between high-risk periodontal pathogens and cardiovascular disease. Knowledge alone has a limited potential to change chronic disease outcomes unless it leads …
A Paradigm Shift that will Change Clinical Practice
By Kathryn Gilliam, RDH, BA Central to our current understanding of periodontal disease development and progression is the idea that only specific periodontal pathogens cause periodontal disease and that all other bacteria present in the oral cavity are either beneficial …
Periodontal Therapy and the Medical Model for Treating a Systemic Bacterial Disease
By John Kempton, DDS, MAGD Dentists are confronted with a strong and consistent organizational message that the use of systemic antibiotics to adjunctively treat periodontitis is inappropriate. Of the thousands of studies and research articles released since 2005 on the …
Integrative Dental Medicine: Standing In The Health Care Gap
By DeWitt C. Wilkerson, DMD The television public that watches medical programs such as “The Dr. Oz Show”, has been thoroughly informed about the relationship between lifestyle choices and chronic disease processes. One frequent guest on the show, Michael …
Oral Systemic Health… Its more than knowing and showing… What are we ‘DOING’ to transform our practice and the lives of our patients?
By John Kempton, DDS, MAGD This is what we know; most of dentistry is now aware that there is a systemic connection between oral pathogens and many chronic systemic diseases. Many dental practices tell their patients this relationship exists and in fact …