March 20th 📅 marked World Oral Health Day, a significant event that reminds us of the crucial role we play in our patients' lives. As dental professionals, we're not just cleaning teeth; we're first responders to systemic health, and it's time we acted like it.

Oral diseases affect nearly 3.5 billion people 🌎 worldwide (GBD 2019). These are not just numbers, but lives affected. We know the stats.

But what are we actually doing? Are we still letting patients walk out the door with undiagnosed perio because "insurance won't cover it"? Are we avoiding hard conversations about systemic risks because it's easier to "watch" disease?

It's time ⌚to change that. We need to have those conversations and take proactive steps to help our patients get and stay healthy.

Here is my challenge to bring the awareness of World Oral Health Day into your operatory every day. Focus on these key topics below and integrate these conversations into your practice.

✅ Educate patients on the oral-systemic link—because their medical doctors won't (Tonetti et al., 2017).

✅ Perform comprehensive medical history screenings—oral health is deeply connected to diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Lamster & Myers-Wright, 2020).

✅ Conduct head and neck cancer screenings at every visit—it takes minutes but can save lives (Warnakulasuriya, 2020).

✅ Integrate nutritional counseling—help patients understand how diet impacts their oral and overall health (Hujoel, 2009).

✅ Recognize the oral-brain connection—periodontal pathogens like P. gingivalis are linked to Alzheimer's and cognitive decline (Dominy et al., 2019).

✅ Commit to disclosing biofilm at every visit (Van der Weijden et al., 2021).

✅ Implement salivary diagnostics for perio and systemic risk (Bale & Doneen, 2022).

Need some tips on how to get the entire office to buy into this approach? Check out this article I wrote for Dental Economics: Practical ways to implement oral-systemic wellness protocols in your daily practice | Dental Economics

If you strive to improve by 1% each day, overtime, you will make a BIG impact! Dental hygiene isn't "just a cleaning. "It's preventive medicine, and we, dental hygienists, are the experts! Let's step up and own it. Embrace that our role is crucial in the fight for better health!

As I challenge you to rise up, I come with support:

🥼Scientific References:

• GBD 2019 Diseases and Injuries Collaborators. (2020). Global oral health data. Lancet.

• Van der Weijden, F., et al. (2021). The efficacy of biofilm disclosing in oral hygiene education. J Clin Periodontol.

• Tonetti, M. S., et al. (2017). Periodontal health and systemic disease. J Clin Periodontol.

• Bale, B., & Doneen, A. (2022). Beat the Heart Attack Gene.

• Lamster, I. B., & Myers-Wright, N. (2020). Oral health and diabetes: Interrelationships, mechanisms, and implications. Diabetes Spectrum.

• Warnakulasuriya, S. (2020). Clinical features and early detection of oral cancer. British Medical Journal (BMJ).

• Hujoel, P. (2009). Dietary carbohydrates and dental-systemic diseases. Clin Nutr.

• Dominy, S. S., et al. (2019). Porphyromonas gingivalis in Alzheimer's disease brains: Evidence for disease causation and treatment approaches. Science Advances.

  ---

If you found this content valuable, please share, comment and subscribe!