A health professor at New York University, Shiela Strauss, said that the mouth is the window of health. Through oral conditions, we can not only detect the risk of various chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, but also osteoporosis.
Hugh Devlin, a dental health expert at Manchester University, is even pioneering a technology: Osteodent. It is a series of tools designed to detect the risk of osteoporosis, just by looking at the scans of dental history for several years.
In a series of experiments, he found that the condition of the jaw bone and teeth are very identical to the overall condition of the bone. Disorders that arise in the area of the jaw and teeth indicate a problem with bone density in the body. The experiment was conducted by comparing the results of dental X-rays of 5,000 patients aged between 15 and 94 years old.
The finding is what then encouraged him to develop tools to assess the risk of osteoporosis. From the results that appear, he hoped dentists are active to recommend the need for the patient to do a specialist examination.
“Software like Osteodent could save lives with early diagnosis and treatment, including preventive therapy of brittle bones. Besides that, it can also save millions of money,” said Devlin.
The technology is a new hope given so far there are no ways that is capable of predicting the risk of osteoporosis. Even after a person experiences a fracture, the diagnosis is still difficult.
Osteoporosis that affects many people around the world is a disease condition in which bone density decreases. They make people who suffer them becomes weaker and more susceptible to bone loss and fractures.