Diabetes and Implant Care
Of course, we all know diabetes effects dental treatment and healing. However, does your home care education change when you know a patient has diabetes? What about when they have a dental implant and diabetes?
Since implants are more and more common, regularly recommended to many different patients, and being placed in general offices, implant protocol for an immune compromised patient with diabetes is crucial. Here are a few things to think about when talking to a patient diagnosed with diabetes about implants:
Has missing a tooth or multiple teeth effected their nutrition? Is their diabetes uncontrolled because of their eating limitations due to missing teeth? This may be a perfect candidate for an implant, as having it will help the patient’s overall health.
How is the patient’s home care? Do they regularly come to your office with generalized biofilm? If the patient is already having a difficult time with their home care, will adding another aspect to their home care with an implant going to be beneficial? Especially with delayed healing on top of the infection with the bacteria, it may be tricky to place an implant and have positive results.
Is their diabetes in control? Well controlled patients with diabetes have an HbA1C levels between 4.0% and 7.5%. These levels are taken over monthly visits to their MD, and averaged to show how well their body is tolerating treatment and how in control their blood sugar is. If the patient does not have these numbers, it may be a sign that they have not be regularly seeing their doctor for treatment, and potentially may not be in control. If a patient is well controlled, they do have a high chance of success for implant placement.
Are they willing to come in at least every 3 months for recall appointments? We as dental hygienists play a major factor in implant maintenance and education for the patient. Having the patient dedicated to coming in every 3 months highlights their commitment to their health and oral health, which in turn will make them a better candidate for implant placement.
How often do you see implants in your patients? Does your office offer implants as a treatment method for missing teeth? We see them every day, and see patients with diabetes regularly, so taking this online CE Course through Dimensions of Dental Hygiene was definitely eye opening!
A big thank you to Dimensions of Dental Hygiene for letting us take this class! They have an amazing Black Friday sale coming up on Friday and through the weekend, which you won’t want to miss! Register today to be the 1st to know of what the sale is, and what you can learn through their peer reviewed courses.