If your teeth could talk, they could warn you of health problems outside your mouth:
“We have lots of data showing a direct correlation between inflammation in the mouth and inflammation in the body,” says Anthony Iacopino, director of the International Centre for Oral-Systemic Health, which opened at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Dentistry in Canada in 2008. Recent studies also show that treating gum disease improves circulation, reduces inflammation and can even reduce the need for insulin in people with diabetes.
Such findings are fueling a push for dentists to play a greater role in patients’ overall health. Some 20 million Americans — including 6% of children and 9% of adults — saw a dentist but not a doctor in 2008, according to a study in the American Journal of Public Health this month.
