The Potential for Glycemic Control Monitoring and Screening for Diabetes at Dental Visits Using Oral Blood

• Published in: American journal of public health (1971) Vol. 105; no. 4; pp. 796 - 801
• Main Authors: Strauss, Shiela M., Rosedale, Mary T., Pesce, Michael A., Rindskopf, David M., Kaur, Navjot, Juterbock, Caroline M., Wolff, Mark S., Malaspina, Dolores, Danoff, Ann
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Public Health Association 01.04.2015
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adults; Aged; Blood; Blood Glucose; Blood Specimen Collection - methods; Blood tests; Body Mass Index; Dental Care - methods; Dental/Oral Health; Dentistry; Diabetes; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - blood; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - diagnosis; Female; Glucose; Glycated Hemoglobin A - analysis; Hemoglobin; Humans; Laboratories; Male; Mass Screening - methods; Medical screening; Middle Aged; New York City; Other Health Service Delivery; Patients; Public health; Public Health Practice; Research and Practice; Risk; Screening; Sociodemographics; Socioeconomic Factors; Studies; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0090-0036; 1541-0048; 1541-0048
• DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302357

Objectives. We examined the potential for glycemic control monitoring and screening for diabetes in a dental setting among adults (n = 408) with or at risk for diabetes. Methods. In 2013 and 2014, we performed hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) tests on dried blood samples of gingival crevicular blood and compared these with paired “gold-standard” HbA1c tests with dried finger-stick blood samples in New York City dental clinic patients. We examined differences in sociodemographics and diabetes-related risk and health care characteristics for 3 groups of at-risk patients. Results. About half of the study sample had elevated HbA1c values in the combined prediabetes and diabetes ranges, with approximately one fourth of those in the diabetes range. With a correlation of 0.991 between gingival crevicular and finger-stick blood HbA1c, measures of concurrence between the tests were extremely high for both elevated HbA1c and diabetes-range HbA1c levels. Persons already diagnosed with diabetes and undiagnosed persons aged 45 years or older could especially benefit from HbA1c testing at dental visits. Conclusions. Gingival crevicular blood collected at the dental visit can be used to screen for diabetes and monitor glycemic control for many at-risk patients.