Early detection of diabetes can help ward off the onset of debilitating diseases associated with diabetes and high blood glucose. Many people live with a condition known as pre-diabetes when they don’t even know it could develop into diabetes, the blood sugar is higher than normal levels, but not as high to be considered a symptom of diabetes type 1 and type 2.
Pre-diabetes usually appears many years before onset of diabetes, people with pre-diabetes can develop diabetes within 10 years of its onset, but the good news is with healthy lifestyle changes and good diet, the onset can be prevented. Pre-diabetes is a silent condition and millions of people don’t know if they have it, but there are certain markers that can let you know and help you prevent the disease.
Diabetes type 2 can be caused by genetic as well as environmental factors, such as lifestyle, including diet too high in simple sugars, being overweight and lack of physical activity. Pre-diabetics and diabetics are prone to tooth decay and tooth diseases, due to high blood sugar, therefore a gum disease could be symptom of pre-diabetes or diabetes. Visiting your dentist on a regular basis can help in early detection of diabetes, which is otherwise hard to detect based on the appearance of symptoms.
Unfortunately, there are more people than ever that have silent diabetes and they wouldn’t do anything about it, unless their doctor advise them to get a test done. Increased blood sugar due to diabetes can lead to tooth decay and gum disease, diabetes can also affect your immune system making you more susceptible to gum diseases and infections in other parts of the body.
There is a strong relationship between dental health and diabetes, as more research is going into it, periodontitis is the inflammation of the gums and that could be a marker of diabetes. This inflammation in the gums could be sign of a weak immune system and that makes the body inefficient to optimally control blood sugar. Diabetes and periodontitis have a two-way relationship, diabetes puts the person at an increased risk of gum inflammation and this gum inflammation further hampers the body’s ability to utilize insulin.
Inflammation in the gums could be sign of chronic and silent inflammation throughout the body and that too can destabilize the synthesis of insulin or make body “insulin resistant”.
Insulin is the hormone that takes blood sugar to the cells for conversion into glucose, this increase in blood sugar can give various markers and symptoms that can help in early detection of diabetes. The high blood sugar provides an ideal condition for many gum infections to grow. Therefore, regular checkups with the dentist can help in early detection and prevention of diabetes.
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