WVDHA Annual Session 2023 (7 CEUs)

In spite of medical advancements and preventive efforts throughout the world, diabetes continues to be a major health crisis – an escalating crisis with no end currently in sight. This comes at a time when our healthcare delivery system is fragmented, overwhelmed and often broken, and simultaneously the introduction of the new model care called medical-dental integration. Rapidly emerging technologies for point-of-care screening/diagnostics place into the hands of oral healthcare providers new devices to perform medical tests which have traditionally been delivered by physicians and nurses. Add to this the 3 decades of compelling evidence of the interrelationship between diabetes and periodontitis and we quickly realize that the professions of dentistry and dental hygiene must now adopt a holistic model of care. The call to action for us is clear: It’s time to ‘look beyond the tonsils’ and take our place in the war on diabetes.

Addressing diabetes has always…