Treating oral disease could yield T2DM-related cost savings
(HealthDay)—Providing nonsurgical periodontal treatment to patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and periodontitis may significantly reduce tooth loss and diabetes-related microvascular diseases via improved glycemic control, according to a study published online Dec. 27 in Diabetes Care.
Sung Eun Choi, Ph.D., from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in Boston, and colleagues built a microsimulation model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of expanding periodontal treatment coverage among patients with T2D. Model inputs were derived from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2009 to 2014).
The researchers found that expanding periodontal treatment coverage among patients with T2D and periodontitis would avert tooth loss by 34.1 percent and microvascular diseases by 20.5 percent for nephropathy, 17.7 percent for neuropathy, and 19.2 percent for retinopathy. From a health care perspective, providing periodontal treatment would yield a total net cost savings of $5,904, with an estimated gain of 0.6 quality-adjusted life years per capita.
"Encouraging patients with T2D and poor oral health conditions to receive periodontal treatment would improve health outcomes and still be cost saving or cost-effective," the authors write.
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