Researchers at Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery (CDM) have confirmed a relationship between diabetes and periodontal (gum) disease for people in low-income and underserved communities. Diabetes mellitus represented an added risk for these individuals who are already at high risk for tooth loss, periodontal disease and caries.

The researchers, led by Evanthia Lalla, DDS, MS, associate professor of dentistry at CDM, reviewed records of 150 patients with diabetes and 150 patients without diabetes from a Columbia University Medical Center dental clinic in Northern Manhattan. They found a 50 percent increase of oral disease for patients with diabetes as compared to non-diabetic
patients.

Findings suggest that diabetes in low-income and underserved communities is an added risk for oral disease and that oral disease prevention and treatment programs may need to be part of the standards for continuing care of patients with diabetes

In a unique study using data from the third National Health and
Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia found that African Americans have worse dental health and a higher prevalence of oral disease, even when they have high educational and income levels.

Luisa N. Borrell, DDS, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health and assistant professor of dentistry at CDM, and colleagues looked at the records of more than 3,400 whites, Mexican Americans and African Americans 50 years or older at multiple income and education levels. They found that African Americans had a significantly higher prevalence of periodontitis at all levels of education and income compared to whites and Mexican Americans. In addition, high-income African Americans had higher prevalence of periodontitis than their low-income peers. Mexican Americans exhibited the lowest prevalence of periodontitis regardless of their socioeconomic status.

These results suggest that the relationship among periodontal health, income and education is different across racial and ethnic groups, and that health care providers need to consider racial and ethnic health disparities when providing dental care, especially for the elderly.

America’s seniors suffer a disproportionate burden of oral disease while having fewer resources for appropriate care -- and these issues will be exacerbated as the elderly population grows. Now, the dean of one of the country’s top dental schools has issued a “call to action” on geriatric oral health and has outlined initiatives that he hopes other institutions will emulate to prevent a health crisis among the nation’s aged.

“The needs of the nation’s seniors do not mesh with the availability of services,” says Dr. Lamster. “While America’s elderly population continues to grow, its dental needs have received little attention and almost no public health or public policy interventions.”

Writing in the May issue of the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH), Ira B. Lamster, DDS, MMSc, dean of Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery, outlines ways to address this hidden health problem. His proposal covers dental education, provision of new dental services, changes in public policy, and prevention initiatives.

Fourth-year dental student Magnon Ivan Reyes has been accepted to participate in an otolaryngology head and neck surgery clinical elective at the National Institutes of Health from June 7-July 30, 2004. Mr. Reyes is the first dental student accepted as a participant in this clinical elective.