'Striking' Data Links Periodontal Care to Lower Diabetes Costs

"The thought is you don't need to cover everybody in the population," he says. "The better thing to do is cover those targeted populations where we can show savings and where we know an intervention program of information and assistance will help them get in and get the treatment they need."

Bramson says dentistry accounts for about 4% healthcare spending in the United States, while hospital care, physician and clinical services, and drugs account for 63% of all spending. "If we can improve the spending in the dental that is going to affect the three other largest segments of the healthcare spending, so we believe you will have some savings well beyond the $1,814," he says.

The study did not specifically examine the cause-and-effect relationship between periodontal disease and diabetes, but Jeffcoat says earlier studies have explained the linkage.

"Any sort of infection you have, be it pneumonia, a kidney infection, it makes your diabetes worse," she says. "Periodontal disease is an infection. If we can get that infection under control we tend to get the hemoglobin A1C, the measure of three months of diabetes, under control. It has to do with inflammation and infection and getting it under control."