{"id":1113,"date":"2020-01-27T13:28:06","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T13:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/?p=1113"},"modified":"2020-01-27T13:28:07","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T13:28:07","slug":"diabetes-dentistry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/diabetes-dentistry\/","title":{"rendered":"DIABETES & DENTISTRY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With more than 24\nmillion diabetics and 57 million pre-diabetics in the United States, nearly a\nquarter of the nation\u2019s population, the connections between dental health and\ndiabetes have never been more critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an indication\nof our general health, the rapidly rising rate of diabetes should be ringing\nalarm bells everywhere. The litany of health implications from diabetes is a\nlong and grisly list. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. That\nis probably vastly understated, because as many as 65% of deaths from diabetes\nare attributed to heart attack and stroke. People with diabetes have about\ntwice the overall risk of death as those who don\u2019t have the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complications from\ndiabetes can cut years off productive lives and interfere with the quality of\nthose lives through a host of debilitating health effects. Heart disease and\nstroke rates are as much as four times higher among diabetics. Nearly\nthree-quarters of diabetics have high blood pressure. Each year, diabetes\ncauses blindness in as many as 24,000 Americans. It is the leading cause of\nkidney failure, nervous system disease, amputations \u2013 the list goes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t meant\nto be a scare tactic. These are simply the facts and, yes, they are sobering.\nBut if you have diabetes or are pre-diabetic, you may want to brace yourself, because\nwe are going to talk straight about oral health and diabetes, two diseases that\ncan twist each other into a tight downward spiral of amplifying negative health\neffects. Unless they are halted by your physician and your dentist working in\ntandem as a health care team, together with your commitment to hold up your end\nof the bargain, these effects can continue to compound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The facts about\nthe connections between oral health and diabetes are even more alarming than\nthose about diabetes alone. Here are just a few:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diabetics are\ntwice as likely to develop gum disease. This is especially true if your\ndiabetes is not under control. The gum disease then worsens your diabetes\nthrough an automatic response that your body uses to fight the infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People with gum\ndisease are 270% more likely to suffer a heart attack than those with healthy\ngums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People who have\ndiabetes and severe gum disease have a premature death rate nearly eight times\nhigher than those who do not have periodontal disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who have gum\ndisease and diabetes together are more than three time likely to die of\ncombined heart and kidney failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In people who have\ntype 2 diabetes, gum disease is a predictor of end-stage kidney disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In people who have\npre-diabetes \u2013 blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not in the\ndiabetic range \u2013 gum disease makes it more likely that they will become\ndiabetic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once established\nin a person who has diabetes, the chronic infection that causes gum disease\nmakes it more difficult to control diabetes, and increases damage and\ncomplications in blood vessel disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will continue\nthis discussion next week and talk about some things you can do to help this\nproblem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. St. Clair\nmaintains a private dental practice in Rowley and Newburyport dedicated to health-centered\nfamily dentistry. If there are certain topics you would like to see written\nabout or questions you have please email them to him at jpstclair@stclairdmd.com<\/a>.\nYou can view all previously written columns at www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With more than 24 million diabetics and 57 million pre-diabetics in the United States, nearly a quarter of the nation\u2019s population, the connections between dental health and diabetes have never been more critical. As an indication of our general health, the rapidly rising rate of diabetes should be ringing alarm bells everywhere. The litany of health implications from diabetes is a long and grisly list. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1113"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1119,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions\/1119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}