Oral Hygiene And The Disease Of Diabetes - 841 Words

Abstract Dental Hygienists have an enormous amount of problems with their patients, one problem being that their patients have diabetes. Patients don t realize that if they have diabetes they are more susceptible to getting serious gum disease. Studies have shown that 90-95% of patients have Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0082158). The goal of this problem is for patients to not accrue the disease of diabetes by taking care of their oral hygiene. The relevance of this topic is for patients to know the importance of their oral hygiene and what can happen to their health. Hygienists can approach this problem by explaining the complications, for instance xerostomia, thrush, burning†¦show more content†¦Like I mentioned above patients can get xerostomia, thrush, and burning mouth or tongue. As a Dental Hygienists, it is your responsibility to maintain the periodontal disease and educate your patients. Discussion Having Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is associated with oral infections. A major oral infection that will be discussed is periodontal disease. Periodontal disease and Diabetes Mellitus have a two-way relationship; periodontal disease is the sixth most common complication of Diabetes Mellitus and DM is the strongest risk factor for periodontal disease (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0082158). A risk factor that can occur from diabetes is xerostomia; this is the condition of not having enough saliva to keep the mouth wet (http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/oralhealth/Topics/DryMouth/). As a dental hygienist, you should be concerned because this increases the chances of accumulating an oral infection. Xerostomia can be treated depending on the starting point of your dry mouth. A hygienist should inform the patient about the treatments that can be done to help their xerostomia because its a symptom of high sugar levels. With a dry mouth, the patient could have diabetes and being in the health profession you need to be cautious of your surroundings. This is one important role a hygienist has to deal with, with a patient that has diabetes. Another problem a hygienist can come in contact with