What You Should Tell Your Dentist About Your Health

Submitted by: July Edison

You may believe that it doesn t matter whether to tell the dentist about your health change or not. In fact, you should tell your dentist of any change in your medical condition and also tell him of any serious allergies or other issues. Dr. Bart Kreiner, who runs his own dental practice, Dr. Kreiner Family Dentistry, in Bel Air, Maryland, says it is extremely important to tell your dentist about your health status. Dr. Kreiner talks about some details listed as following:

1.If you undergo a change in your overall health or you are taking any oral medications, you should tell your dentist. For example, you must tell the dentist that you are taking vitamins, dietary supplements and other oral medications. We have known that a patient s mouth does not get dropped off at the dental office like dirty laundry to get picked up later. It cannot be denied that medical conditions affect your dental conditions as well. Nowadays, it is well-known that your overall dental health affects your overall general health. And many facts can prove this viewpoint. Take diabetes for example. Diabetes is one of the illnesses that can increase the severity of your gum disease. Medications prescribed to diabetics may cause dry mouth, which increases the severity of gum disease and the decay rate of teeth. So it is extremely important to let your dentist know if you are a diabetic patient, and the names of the medications you are taking.

2.It s dangerous if you don t tell your dentist about your illness. For example, if you have a compromised immune system due to HIV or AIDS and you never tell your dentist about this condition, can you imagine what would happen when your five or six teeth were pulled out at once? In fact, the wound caused by the extraction of these teeth could lead to a bacterial infection which could cause death.

3.Let your dentist know your medical history is also important to your medical staff. As a dentist, I’m supposing every patient has a contagious disease, which possibly could kill me. This general assumption leads me to wear a protective gown, gloves and goggles during every appointment. It does not matter if you are 2 or 102 years old, I still maintain the same precautions.

4.The precautions I take to protect myself are not going to change, but measures I take to protect the patients could change depending on the information you have told me. However, you should be honest about your current and past medical history, or I can t take the steps to guarantee your safety. For example, if you know that you are allergic to penicillin, but fail to tell me, and I give it to you during your appointment, you could possibly have an allergic reaction and go into anaphylactic shock. So it would not be my fault, if such kind of thing happens. The whole thing could have been avoided if you had told me about your allergy.

In short, telling the truth about your current and past medical history to the dentist is more beneficial to you. Truthfully, it just makes my job more complicated when you re not. So be honest from now on.

The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.

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