The Toothboss adds blood pressure screening to comprehensive exam services

For more than a few people, a trip to the dentist can raise their blood pressure. If that fear/anxiety raises your blood pressure to pre-hypertension levels—120-139 Systolic and greater than 80 Diastolic—then it might be risky treating that patient. That’s why we have added blood pressure screening as part of the comprehensive annual exam for patients.

Besides normal anxiety, some of the procedures we do utilize pharmacologies that can impact blood pressure. So having an accurate read prior to the start of treatment is extremely important, particularly if the patient has high blood pressure or is on medication for it.

Another reason is that many people are unaware that they have high blood pressure, largely because they don’t get an annual check-up with their physician. A visit to the dentist should not replace that, but checking BP as part of the exam can alert patients to a potential problem.

Hypertension or high blood pressure affects more than one in three adults in the United States. It’s also estimated that another 30 percent of the population has pre-hypertension. That’s blood pressure higher than what’s considered acceptable for an adult, 120 systolic/80 diastolic.

Prior to 2007, 135/85 had been considered an acceptable pressure. That now is considered pre-hypertension. So there’s a real need to stay on top of your blood pressure.

That’s something we do not take lightly at The Toothboss. As a dental student, one of my professors assigned us the task of practicing taking blood pressure readings on friends and family. I practiced on my father. The first reading was shocking so I took it again and again. Each came back with the same conclusion. My father had high blood pressure.

My practicing on him probably saved his life because I’m not sure he would have gone to the doctor on his own. It’s for people like my father that we are taking this extra step. First, I will do the BP screenings as part of the comprehensive exams. Once we upgrade our machinery, everybody who visits the Toothboss will have their blood pressure checked, by me and our hygienists.

A donation with some teeth to it. Rasin Foundation helps The Toothboss go paperless.

When my dental practice went to paperless files, our primary thought was making the office run more efficiently and being greener. We didn’t realize how this conversion could benefit fellow dentists thousands of miles away in Haiti. Yet that’s exactly what happened when we discovered the Rasin Foundation.

I first heard about the Rasin Foundation, a Milton, MA-based non-profit from a fellow National Guardsmen, Dr. Fidel Gabriel. Fidel is a native of Haiti and he told me of the Foundation’s efforts to get supplies to start a dental practice in Leogane, Haiti. When I asked what types of items the Foundation would accept and mentioned my filing system, it was a no-brainer on this end as to what to do.

The filing system itself costs approximately $2500 but I was prepared to eat the cost of that because I believe going paperless far outweighed the cost. To find an organization like the Rasin Foundation that could benefit from the donation of the filing system was icing on the cake. The fact it was going to help a dental practice was the cherry on top.

As you can imagine, the equipment and technology that we enjoy and perhaps take for granted here in the U.S. aren’t available in remote places like Leogane, Haiti. I encourage dentists, doctors and other health care professionals to visit The Raisin Foundation’s website to see if they need other items. One man’s upgrade is another’s treasure.


For more information, visit www.RasinFoundation.org.

Startling facts about oral hygiene and heart disease

We all know that heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. Did you know that forgetting to brush your teeth at least twice a day increases your risk of heart disease by 70 percent?

How about this: men and women with periodontical disease are almost twice as likely to suffer from coronary artery disease as those without? Or that a periodontical disease can greatly exacerbate an existing heart condition?

Perhaps that's why it's no surprise that nearly 20 million Americans who do visit their dentist each year do NOT have to see their doctor.