Dentists may be able to screen their patients for diabetes while they are cleaning teeth or performing other procedures. A study has found that dentists can reliably test for diabetes using blood from the gums that occurs during routine tooth cleaning. Such testing may be as accurate as standard screening for diabetes that uses a drop of blood from the finger.
The study used dried blood samples obtained during dental work at a clinic. The samples were tested for hemoglobin A1c, which shows the average blood glucose concentration over a period of 2 or 3 months. These were compared to dried blood samples from the same patients' fingers. A1c levels are widely used as a test for diabetes in addition to blood glucose levels. The patients tested were those at greatest risk for type 2 diabetes who were at least 45 years old or who had other risk factors, such as being overweight.
The researchers found that oral and finger test results matched in 97.8% of cases where A1c levels showed diabetes and in 92.9% of cases where A1c levels showed prediabetes. Testing the oral blood was able to accurately rule out diabetes 99.1% of the time.
This was not a random clinical study, since patients were chosen who were at risk for diabetes, which means that the results may not hold up in further research. Gum disease, which can cause bleeding, is more common in people with diabetes.
Some people see their dentist more often than they see their doctor. More than 8 million people in the United States have diabetes and do not know it. If further research shows that oral blood can be used to screen for diabetes during dental visits, dentists would need to be trained to counsel patients about the findings and be able to refer them to physicians who treat diabetes.
The study was published in the American Journal of Public Health.