Can Your Teeth Warn Of Osteoporosis?

The health of your jaw is an early indicator of the health of your entire skeleton. Teeth are living tissue just as bone is, and any process that affects your bones will affect your teeth and the surrounding area. Loose teeth, in particular, indicate bone loss in the jaw, but simple gum disease can be the first sign of [tag]osteoporosis[/tag]. Periodontal disease can predict health in other areas too. A group of dentists with the Academic Center for Dentistry in Amsterdam have discovered that dental x-rays can be a diagnostic tool for osteoporosis. As we have noted before, the health of your teeth and jaw is an early indicator of the health of your entire skeleton. Teeth are living tissue just as bone is, and any process that affects your bones will affect your teeth and the surrounding area, too. Loose teeth, in particular, indicate bone loss in the jaw, but simple gum disease can be the first sign of osteoporosis.

Standard screening efforts for osteoporosis tend to be expensive and not readily available for large groups of people. The heel-measurement devices found in drug stores and used in community screenings are not sensitive enough to give a true reading. As a result, the tendency is to refer women for testing only if there’s some reason to believe that osteoporosis is present. Currently, unless a woman has broken a bone, the only real indicators for osteoporosis are age and body type. The risk increases with age, and thin women are at higher risk as are women with slender bone structure. Researchers found that certain measurements from dental x-rays could improve the prediction of osteoporosis by 10 percent or more. In the study, 661 women had their bone mineral density measured by the current standard, DEXA analysis, and the results were compared to those of dental x-rays from the same women. Analysis showed that using the dental x-rays was both sensitive and specific. It detected osteoporosis in women who really had it, and didn’t show osteoporosis in women who didn’t have it according to The International Association for Dental Research,. There are two advantages to using dental x-rays in this manner. The first is that nearly everyone has them on a regular basis, so it’s not a big deal to add in a check for osteoporosis. The analysis of the x-rays is done by a software program, so the dentist doesn’t have to spend much additional time per patient. The second advantage is that there’s little additional expense in the use of dental x-rays. DEXA scans require the use of specialized and expensive equipment, and providers of that service charge accordingly. Your dentist may need to make a nominal investment in the software program.