Many dentists have been noticing the connection between gum and tooth problems and bone loss. It seems that people who have periodontal problems often also have osteoporosis.
Now the link between periodontal problems and osteoporosis has been proven by a major study looking at bone-mineral density and oral health in nearly 3,000 postmenopausal women who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III. Their analysis showed a strong and direct relationship between bone loss, gum-attachment loss and tooth loss.
While many people with osteoporosis do not show signs of weak jawbones there are now ways to tell from digital dental x-rays if osteoporosis is present. In a recent study 49 post-menopausal women had their dental x-rays analyzed by a computer program and 92% of the patients with osteoporosis were identified. 96% of those who had no osteoporosis were also correctly identified.
Your dentist could get the software to analyze the x-rays and then you would be able to find out a lot sooner about the health of your bones just in the course of your normal dental check-up. You would need to follow up with a Dexa scan prescribed by your doctor.
I first found out about this from Dr Robert Rowen’s newsletter, Second Opinion. This is a great newsletter, one of the few that I still read regularly, there are so many now. Dr Rowan is usually way ahead of the crowd and often has some very unusual solutions. He is an integrative physician.
My question would be: would dentists really want to be advising their patients about their bones? Would that involve them in some kind of responsibility issues? Given their total ostrich attitude to the use of mercury in people’s mouths, which has shortened many lives, I think many would not offer the information – but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
Pam