The Mouth and Eyes

I have been taking care of one of my patients for more than 25 years and as much as I tried to convince him to become a dentist, he chose opthomology. He had an appointment yesterday for a checkup and he told me about one of his patients that recently became blind in one eye and may lose her eye. The cause of the infection that led to blindness was bacteria that came from the patient's own mouth.

I told you so...

The medical profession and the insurance industry treat teeth and the rest of the mouth as being completely separate from the rest of the body rather than being just part of our bodies. The list of medical problems that arise as a result of bacteria in our mouths is getting longer every day; low birth weight, premature babies, brain infections, heart problems and now eyes are among others have been reported in the scientific literature.

Isn't it time for physicians and insurance companies to wake up and realize that problems in the mouth affect the rest of our body? And most importantly...DEMAND that their patients visit a dentist 2-4 times a year?

Or maybe I am becoming crotchety as I get older.