'Striking' Data Links Periodontal Care to Lower Diabetes Costs

An insurance industry study, touted as the largest of its kind, shows that medical costs can be reduced by more than $1,800 a year for each diabetic patient who receives periodontal care.

The study examined medical records from more than 1.6 million people who were covered by both United Concordia Dental and Highmark Inc. and identified about 90,000 Type 2 diabetics.  About 25% of those diabetics elected to receive periodontal treatment in 2007 and the study compared their medical costs over the next three years with the 75% 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, with the University of Pennsylvania, the lead author of the study.

"I also found it striking that this result was carried through for three years," Jeffcoat told reporters at a Monday teleconference. "If you look at the mean number of visits they paid to a physician, again in 2007 they saw half the number of physician visits and this statistically significant result was carried through again for three years."

"If we look at mean medical costs we have a reduction in all three years and if you look at it the mean medical savings was $1,814 per patient per year. That is a striking number. This affect is apparent two years after the periodontal treatment," Jeffcoat says.