UQ researchers are studying whether better oral health care could lead to an improvement in overall general health.
Researchers at the University’s Oral Care Research Program in the School of Dentistry have begun examining whether the health of those from low socio-economic backgrounds could be improved through a specific personalised oral health education programme.
Senior Research Officer at the School of Dentistry Dr Mary Cullinan said better oral health care could result in better overall health in disadvantaged communities.
“It is anticipated that this study will show that an individualised oral health program will result in a significant improvement in oral health which in turn will reduce the need for further dental treatment, break the cycle of emergency care and at the same time lessen the risk of systemic disease by reducing clinical and molecular risk factors,” Dr Cullinan said.
She said the research had two main aims: to determine the effectiveness of a specific personalised oral health education program and to determine the impact of this programme on clinical and molecular risk factors for oral and general health in subjects from a low socio-economic community.
“There have been a large number of studies linking cardiovascular and periodontal diseases.
"Our study will attempt to show if treating periodontal disease results in a reduction of serum markers of cardiovascular disease,” Dr Cullinan said.
Clinical risk factors include blood pressure, body mass index and waist to hip ratio. The molecular risk factors are the molecules found in the blood that indicate the risk of cardiovascular disease.
She said that in low socio-economic communities a large part of the dental care within the public sector was of an emergency nature, which could have a detrimental effect not only on oral health, but also on general health such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The research will involve 1000 patients from the Dental Clinic at the Logan Hospital in the Logan-Beaudesert Health Service District south of Brisbane.
The Logan-Beaudesert district was chosen for the study as it was estimated that up to 18 to 20 percent of residents had diabetes and that mortality rates from coronary heart disease were 30 percent higher when compared with the rest of Queensland.
Dr Cullinan said the study, which started in October, was one of the first intervention studies and was due to last for three years.
She said the study, which would also examine alternative ways to treat oral disease in communities with social disadvantages, would be relatively inexpensive and had the potential to be disseminated widely across Australia.
For more information, contact Dr Mary Cullinan telephone 07 3365 1905, email: m.cullinan@mailbox.uq.edu.au or Professor Greg Seymour telephone 07 3365 8032, email: g.seymour@mailbox.uq.edu.au or UQ Communications telephone 07 3365 3367, email: communications@uq.edu.au.
