Dentists should monitor patients’ weight and blood pressure during checkups, public health experts say

Public health experts say dental exams should include asking people to get on the scale and have their blood pressure checked.

Routine appointments should include checks for BMI, waist circumference, cholesterol, blood sugar levels and blood pressure, it is argued, to identify middle-aged people at risk of heart problems and diabetes.

Many people have health problems that their doctor overlooks because they rarely attend a doctor’s appointment.

A research report published in the British Dental Journal calls for dentists to carry out health checks.

This follows two years of successful use of the strategy in a dental practice in Cheshire for NHS and private patients, and fourteen months of use by dentists in the Welsh Borders who treat mainly NHS patients.

Routine appointments should include checks of BMI, waist circumference, cholesterol, blood sugar levels and blood pressure, it is argued, to identify middle-aged people at risk of heart problems and diabetes (stock photo)

More than 500 people who went to the dentist underwent a concurrent medical MOT which showed three-quarters had above-normal blood pressure, including a handful at high risk of heart attack or stroke.

Almost 17 percent had high cholesterol, while about 3 percent had high blood sugar.

While half of England’s population visits a dentist every two years, practices are currently overwhelmed, leaving people struggling to get an appointment. Some even use their own teeth.

But the authors of the new research say dentistry could provide valuable health screenings if it had more resources.

Dr Janine Doughty, lead author of the study from the University of Liverpool and a dentist herself, said: “This should be part of what dentists are encouraged to do by regulators and the NHS.”

Eddie Crouch, chairman of the British Dental Association, said: “Dentists are experienced clinicians and well placed to support the important work of detecting and preventing disease. “But we can only carry out blood and weight tests if this service survives.

“There is an exodus from NHS dentistry. Unless ministers act, this is a purely hypothetical debate.”

The new paper, written by scientists from the universities of Liverpool, Loughborough and Plymouth, says health checks at dental appointments can prevent people getting sick and dying.

The report’s authors say dentists can share information with doctors with patient consent.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “The best place for a health check remains the GP and we are making it easier for patients to access theirs.”