Dental professionals can play an important role in the early diagnosis of hypertension, especially in individuals over 40, by screening patients during a dental visit, according to a new Spanish study (Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal, Dec. 2009, Epub ahead of print).
Researchers looked at a 154 patients who were seen for a dental checkup at the Primary Dental Care of the Gallician Health Service.
Participants completed a standardized medical questionnaire after measuring their systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure.
The results indicated that 45 patients (29%) may have hypertension, out of whom only 12 had been previously diagnosed. The remaining 33 had no history of hypertension and were referred to a family physician, but only 19 saw their doctor. A total of 11 patients were given non-pharmacological treatment, six were prescribed drug treatment, and no type of treatment was indicated for the other two patients.
