Dr. Tom Giacobbi is back this week with another patient communication tip. This time, he discusses the oral-systemic link and how to ensure you're educating rather than perhaps unintentionally scaring your patients.
Video transcript
"Do you talk to your patients about the link between their oral health and their systemic health? This is such an important topic for us to cover.
"Here's a few stats: People with gum disease have two to three times the risk of having a heart attack, stroke, or other cardiovascular event. People with diabetes are two to four times more likely to have gum disease, and periodontal disease may double the odds of having a low birth weight baby.
"Now we don't want to scare our patients with these facts. It's more important that when our patients are in the office, we're congratulating them on taking a positive step forward with their dental health.
"So you might say, '[Pregnant patient], I'm glad you're here, because by addressing your oral health, you're much more likely to have a healthy baby.' If it's an elderly patient, you may talk to them a little bit about their cardiovascular health and say, 'You're taking a great step today by addressing your dental health, because this is going to translate to better cardiac health in the future.'
"Now, let's get back to work."
