Dentists should check patients’ weight and blood pressure during check-ups, public health experts say
- Checkups help identify people at risk for heart problems and diabetes
Public health experts say dental checkups should also include asking people to step on the scale and have their blood pressure checked.
Routine appointments should include checks of BMI, waist circumference, cholesterol, blood sugar levels and blood pressure, it is argued, to identify middle-aged people at risk of heart problems and diabetes.
Many have health problems that are missed by their doctor because they rarely make a doctor’s appointment.
The call for dentists to carry out health checks is made in a research paper published in the British Dental Journal.
It follows two years of successful use of the strategy at a dental practice in Cheshire for NHS and private patients, and fourteen months of use by dentists in the Welsh borders, treating mainly NHS patients.
People should be asked to step on the scale and have their blood pressure checked during dental checkups, according to public health experts (Stock Image)
Routine appointments should include checks of BMI, waist circumference, cholesterol, blood sugar levels and blood pressure, it is argued, to identify middle-aged people at risk of heart problems and diabetes (Stock Image)
More than 500 people who went to the dentist were given a medical MOT at the same time, which showed that three-quarters had higher than normal blood pressure, including a handful at high risk of heart attack or stroke.
Nearly 17 percent had high cholesterol, while about 3 percent had high blood sugar.
While half of the English population visits a dentist every two years, practices are currently overloaded, leaving people struggling to get an appointment. Some even resort to pulling their own teeth.
But the authors of the new research paper say that if dentistry had more resources, it could provide valuable health checks.
Dr. Janine Doughty, lead author of the study from the University of Liverpool and a dentist herself, said: ‘This should be part of what dentists are encouraged to do by regulators and the NHS.’
Eddie Crouch, chairman of the British Dental Association, said: ‘Dentists are experienced clinicians and well placed to support vital work in detecting and preventing disease. But we can only check blood and weight if this service survives.
‘There is an exodus from NHS dentistry. Unless ministers take action, this is a purely hypothetical debate.”
The new paper, written by academics from the universities of Liverpool, Loughborough and Plymouth, says health checks at dental appointments can prevent people from getting sick and dying.
The report’s authors say dentists can share information with doctors, with patient consent.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘The best place for a health check remains the GP, and we are making it easier for patients to access theirs.’