An insurance industry study, the largest of its kind, shows that medical costs can be reduced by more than $1,800 a year for diabetic patients receiving periodontal care.
The study examined medical records from more than 1.6 million people covered by both United Concordia Dental and Highmark, Inc., and identified about 90,000 Type 2 diabetics. About 25 percent of those diabetics elected to receive periodontal treatment in 2007; the study compared their medical costs over the next three years with 75 percent of diabetics in the group who declined the oral care.
“The data is striking. In 2007 you had fewer than half the inpatient admissions if the patients had periodontal surgery when compared with the patients who did not,” says Marjorie Jeffcoat, DMD (University of Pennsylvania), lead author of the study. She also found this statistically significant result was carried through for three years.