Periodontal Disease and Systemic Health in Clinical Dentistry

Dentistry has come a long way since 1900 when Willoughby Miller & William Hunter proclaimed that oral disease cause most systemic disease. A century later researchers are developing a scientifically based understanding of how in fact periodontitis may be a risk for certain systemic diseases. As these more recent observations are confirmed & clarified, dentistry will have a new responsibility in caring for patients who may develop or who have periodontitis. It is no longer just teeth that are at risk.