I want to talk about something that’s very important to a huge percentage of our population and that is diabetes and periodontal disease.
More and more of us, that is Americans and people all over the world are developing diabetes. Well, why am I as a periodontist talking about diabetes. Because if you have diabetes you will have triple, three times, the risk of developing periodontitis than someone who does not have diabetes, and here’s the other really interesting thing, that is if you have periodontitis, it’s more likely to initiate, cause and/or make worse your diabetes.
Now, this is even more interesting, more than half of the US population and two-thirds or more of us adults over 60 have gum disease or periodontitis. So gum disease, periodontitis, diabetes very very closely linked.
You’ve got diabetes you’re more likely to have periodontitis. You have periodontitis, it increases your risk for diabetes. What’s interesting is I’ve treated many many patients with diabetes. Some of them have actually lost limbs had legs amputated.
In virtually every one of these cases, their blood sugar has come down. Their A1C or their H a1c has come down to a level that is more controllable than it was before. Why is that? Because if you have periodontal disease you have an infection in your mouth, but it’s not just in your mouth that is infection going through your body.
It causes what’s called an inflammatory response generalized throughout your whole body, and that actually will make your diabetes more severe. Will make it worse. So if we can control the inflammation from the gum disease, then we can help control diabetes, they work together.
So just make sure that your mouth is healthy. If your mouth is healthy, you are going to be healthier. We had a patient who had a very uncontrolled high A1C level. I think it was around 14 or so. We treated her periodontally.
She just was so thankful, and I’ll let her tell you a little bit about that. Hi my name is Juanita Barnes, and I had the LANAP surgery. At that time my A1C’s were almost 14 and Dr. Nemeth told me that once I had this surgery that I would see a significant difference with my A1Cs, and you know and I am so extremely happy to report, my A1C’s dropped from almost 14 down to eight point six.
I am just overwhelmed and ecstatic about it. Just like Dr. Nemeth said that they would go down and they went down and I was so happy about it because it has never been that low. My hats go off to doctor Nemeth I thank him for everything he did.
He was a gracious doctor. He sent me flowers after I had my surgery and I have never had a doctor who would do that and I just warmed my heart and it made me feel like he cared about me and he cared about my A1Cs so.
Remember, diabetes isn’t the only disease that’s affected by your oral health. In fact, I can almost think of no disease that’s not affected by your oral health.
You’ve got an infection in your mouth it affects your whole body. If you look on Google you look it up you’re going to find anywhere from 20 to 30 other diseases, systemic diseases, that can be made worse or initiated by the infection in your mouth.
So, look keep yourself healthy. Keep your mouth healthy. You keep your mouth healthy, you are going to be healthier and if you have any comments let us know. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, we’d love to hear from you, and have a healthy mouth you’ll have a healthy body, I guarantee it.
Restore your smile and your health with the help of dr. Nemeth and his associates. Visit drnemeth.com to schedule your appointment today!
