RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: In this manuscript, we provide information and guidance on oral health education for diabetes care management, which will be beneficial to primary care providers and educators as it serves to fill a current knowledge gap. RESULTS: There is a lack of awareness on the relationship between diabetes mellitus and oral health complications along with less frequent dental visits by adult patients with diabetes, which can be attributed to the great variation in the volume and intensity of training on oral health information between current diabetes education programs. CONCLUSIONS: There is a general lack of reliable oral health assessment tools incorporated in diabetes education curricula in addition to a lack of familiarity and time to complete the existing tools among diabetes patient educators in the busy primary care setting. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: We propose a simplified, more feasible oral health assessment tool that can be incorporated in office visits of primary care educators and providers. The intention of this manuscript is to generate sufficient awareness to motivate a follow-up effectiveness study to test the validity and use of the proposed tool.
