A medical history form is a starting point to guide conversations and to make connections between oral health and overall health. Consider re-configuring your current medical history form to quickly be able to visualize oral systemic connections and/ or concerns. These 5 questions should be asked on your current health history form.
1) Has a parent, sibling or grandparent had a heart attack or stroke? Yes__ No__
2) Has a parent, sibling or grandparent had diabetes? Yes__ No__
3) Has a parent, sibling or grandparent had periodontal disease? Yes__ No__
4) Has a parent, sibling or grandparent had COPD? Yes__ No__
5) Has a parent, sibling or grandparent had cancer? Yes__ No__
What do all these questions have in common? Inflammation. The answers provided by the patient indicate a predisposing genetic background for inflammatory disease .These questions help to determine risk and when coupled with a salivary diagnostic tests such as a pathogen analysis, (i.e. MyPerioPath) and a genetic risk assessment test like Celsus One, you have an even more complete picture. Asking these questions and having them grouped near or at the beginning of the medical history form allows for the dental professional to quickly evaluate a patient’s predisposition for inflammatory disease.
Once high risk patients are identified, oral systemic periodontal treatment planning is crucial. Consulting the medical history and the salivary test results, enables a dental professional to create an individualized successful systemic periodontal plan for a patient. Through the use of a well-developed medical history and salivary diagnostics results, dental professionals are uniquely positioned to help guide a patient not only to reduce oral inflammation but total body systemic inflammation as well, thus potentially extending lifespans.
Traci Warner, RDH
Traci is a graduate of the Ferris State University School of Dental Hygiene and Dawson Academy’s Dental Institute for Systemic Health. She is a member of the American Academy for Oral Systemic Health and has served as a professor at Baker College of Cadillac, Michigan.
Latest posts by Traci Warner, RDH (see all)
- The Medical History Form and Salivary Diagnostics - July 28, 2017
Dear Traci,
I completely agree with your idea of taking a closer look at the medical history and the idea of grouping inflammatory questions together. Identifying these and then being able to couple it with the diagnostic tests are very powerful. Would love to know how you guide your patients after you get results. What are you recommending to help them reduce the inflammation?
Thanks so much,
Jennifer Rankin, DDS
Thank you Jennifer for your comment. Once the results of the saliva test is known and we know what we are dealing with as far as a bacterial load, then an individualized periodontal therapy treatment plan can be created to include systemic antibiotics, oral products such as mouth rinses, electric toothbrushes and oral irrigators. This periodontal therapy is to include full mouth irrigation with an antimicrobial rinse along with root planning and scaling and in states where it is allowed, a laser.
Periodontal disease is an inflammatory disease, as is: Cardiovascular disease, Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis, COPD, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Chrohn’s Disease, Psoriasis and do many more. Inflammation can be initiated or elevated by multiple factors: pathogens, virus, toxins, smoking, stress, obesity, genetics, diet and inactivity. The systemic inflammatory burden is cumulative especially as the host continues to survive with it. Truly listening to your patient and understanding where their inflammatory burden comes from is crucial with helping guide them towards total body wellness. I hope this was helpful and don’t hesitate to ask more questions of me.
Thanks for your reply. While I understand the protocols for treating the bacteria and creating an individual plan, we still have not addressed the potential systemic component. It inflammation still exists within the body and we are only treating the periodontal piece, then there is still a heavy inflammatory burden on the body. Ultimately, that was what I wanted to find out: how are you addressing the systemic component? If you are not, would you be open to a conversation on how you/other dental care providers could assist our patients even further and provide them with even better results, all of which have been proven with research?
Dr. Rankin- You make a great point, and as I am always looking for science based information to help my patients, I would love to continue this conversation. I will contact you directly and we can discuss in greater detail.
-Traci
Hello Traci! Hope you had a wonderful weekend. I look forward to hearing from you and continuing this conversation as you mentioned. My cell number is 303-906-3199, office 303-690-4000
and email is jlrankindds@gmail.com. Email me or text me some dates and times that you are available to speak so I can coordinate with my schedule.
In Health,
Jennifer