Oral health is just as important as physical health — in fact, they are even connected.
Norton Travis, CEO of New York City-based ProHealth Dental, spoke with "Becker's Dental + DSO Review Podcast" to discuss the link between oral and overall health.
Note: This is an edited excerpt. Listen to the full podcast episode here.
Question: How does oral health link to a person's overall health?
Norton Travis: Just last week, the [National Institutes of Health] issued a long-awaited report entitled "Oral Health in America,'' and it was a follow-up to the surgeon general's report that was issued, believe it or not, 20 years ago on the same subject. So all one needs to do is to look at the NIH report, and it can pretty comprehensively answer that question. It notes that first of all, there have been some, but not at the level that should have occurred, meaningful improvements on oral health across different populations in the United States. It focuses significantly on all of the research and correlated medical conditions that have now been documented resulting from poor oral health. In terms of good timing, just a study also just came out of the U.K., where there were 65,000 cohorts of patients with what they call gum disease or periodontal disease, and came out with enormous findings about how it impacted significant healthcare conditions, such as hypertension, heart disease, pulmonary disease, Alzheimer's disease, even certain cancers.
I think at this point there is no question that the documentation, and again, fortunately now not just in the dental journals, but in the medical journals as well, there is a clear and incontrovertible link between poor oral health and serious healthcare conditions. Now the question is, "What are we going to do about it?" We need to change the mindset of why people go to the dentist. You know, historically and primarily today, people go to the dentist either because something hurts or because of a cosmetic issue, or maybe they know that it's good to get your teeth cleaned every six months. But I don't believe that even a small portion of the population believes, "I'm gonna go to the dentist because I wanna stay overall healthier."
Like what we've been dealing with for decades, going to the dentist is limited to what's going on in your mouth. We are changing that mindset. Our hygiene visits or preventive care visits as we call them, are really wellness visits. Besides the traditional hygiene that you would get at any dentist office, we're also doing many medical screenings, including blood pressure screenings, EKG screenings, sleep disorder screenings, of course, oral health screenings, and every patient that is part of ProHealth dental leaves with a customized report entitled "oral health assessment." It tells you how your medical condition is going to be impacted by your oral health condition. We then share those reports with both the patient and the patient's primary care physician, so that we can get the communication and the dialogue going with their [primary care physicians] about the importance of oral health. I know that's a long-winded answer but, you know, I have to plead guilty. I've been preaching this mission now for the last six years. I'm a true believer in why oral health is so important. Again, if you'll get the NIH study and the recent U.K. study and other noted clinical journals, you're gonna see that at this point we can't ignore the fact that poor oral health is a contributor to many significant disease conditions.