Oral-systemic health: The time is now!
AAOSH co-founder, past president, and current board member Dr. Dan Sindelar is featured on the June 2014 issue of Dental Economics magazine. In the article, he provides an update on what's happening in the world of oral-systemic health and how the healthcare world has been affected by the OSH movement.
Periodontal disease is now considered a complex oral and systemic disease that needs to be addressed by an integrative coordinated care team that includes both dental and medical professionals. Oral-systemic health (OSH) has become a movement.
The research is exploding. Just over the last year, research has found:
- It appears up to 50% of heart attacks are triggered by oral pathogens.
- Addressing visual and microbial periodontal disease slows if not reverses CIMT progression.
- Six oral spirochetes appear to be causal of Alzheimer's.
- P. gingivalis, an oral bacterium, raises risk for a heart attack by 13.6 times when present -- that's twice the risk of a heavy smoker!
- Periodontal disease is as big a risk as high blood pressure for strokes.
Over the last six years, a lot has changed...