Of the 29.1 million Americans living with diabetes, an estimated 8.1 million are undiagnosed. New research suggests that a trip to the dentist could be an effective way to identify people who might have diabetes and not know it.
Published in the American Journal of Public Health, the study of 408 dental patients shows that using gingival crevicular blood (GCB) [the blood found around the gums] for hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) testing produces values that are nearly identical to those obtained using finger-stick blood, with a 99 percent correlation between the two samples.
Testing HbA1c is promoted by the American Diabetes Association for diabetes diagnostic purposes and glycemic control monitoring.
The dental visit could be a useful opportunity to conduct diabetes screenings.
, associate professor of nursing, New York University
