Here at Dentistry by Design, we
routinely take blood pressure readings for all of our patients,
and are
frequently asked, “Why is this important when you’re just working in my mouth?”
We welcome questions, and always appreciate
our patients for being understanding of this protocol. In honor of Blood Pressure Awareness month,
we wanted to share the importance of why we have this procedure in place.
We strive to do our best in taking care
of our patients’ oral health and we strongly believe in overall systemic
health. However, patients often overlook the fact that the oral health is
connected to the systemic health of the individual.
We are fortunate enough to see patients
2-4 times a year, which is more often than their physician. As dental hygienists, we are in a unique
position to assess blood pressure and increase our patients' awareness about
the risks associated with untreated hypertension due to the sheer number of
times we see an individual patient on an annual basis. When we inform an
unknowing patient that he or she has undetected, uncontrolled hypertension
(high blood pressure), the dental visit then serves as an entry point for the
person to take charge of his or her overall health.
High blood pressure is known as a
“silent killer”, and many times, by the time the patient reaches their
physician, or has any symptoms, their blood pressure is sky high and may have already
caused serious damage to the heart, blood vessels, kidneys and eyes, which may
result in a stroke, heart attack, or aneurysm.
High blood pressure readings also alert your
dental staff of your risk for a medical emergency; thus, changing the type of
local anesthetic we may administer. We may choose to limit the amount of
vasoconstrictor or epinephrine, or avoid them completely, and opt to use an
anesthetic without any epinephrine or vasoconstrictor.
As for some, a visit to the dentist can
be less than enjoyable, and we are aware that a significant percentage of the
population does have true dental anxiety. ‘White coat syndrome’ will cause a
patient to have high blood pressure due to this anxiety or fear. Other contributing factors could be, but are
not limited to, coming directly from the gym or drinking large amounts of
caffeine. This is why we will take blood pressure
readings multiple times to obtain the most accurate average
Again, your overall health is our first
priority and we appreciate all of you for being accepting, patient, and
understanding the benefit of having this protocol in place.
Navleen Sandhu, RDH,
BS
