Abnormalities of the Single-Rooted Anterior Teeth: An Index for Early Detection of Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

The major reasons behind the worsening cases of prognosis of diabetes mellitus (DM) world-wide and its associated
death toll is late diagnosis and ignorance amongst populations. Of course, awareness and knowledge about the
diseases and its complexity, lead to early diagnosis, treatment, and complications’ prevention. The fact that some
body organs can serve as indicators for derailing conditions like diabetes (the teeth being the most affected), formed the basis for this study designed to determine the extent to which the single-rooted anterior teeth are implicated in patients with diabetes mellitus. The study involved 1,350 randomly selected DM patients that visited the dental clinics of four (4) selected hospitals in Imo State, Nigeria. Their data were extracted from clinical notes and radiological reports and tabulated into two groups. Group A represents the incidence of dental abnormalities in prediagnosed diabetic conditions, while group B represented the incidence of dental abnormalities in established cases of DM. The statistical analysis showed that there exists a significant difference (P ≥ 0.05) in the compared     abnormalities of the single-rooted anterior teeth; indicating that the abnormalities of the single-rooted anterior teeth can serve as index for early detection of DM.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, Epidemic, Diagnosis, Teeth, Single-rooted anterior.