An open access article published in BMC Oral Health concludes that there is an unmet need among dentists for information regarding the association between dental conditions and systemic diseases.1

The authors of the article retrieved over 14,000 messages posted to the Internet Dental Forum, an online community of 450 practitioners, from April 2008 to May 2009, identified substantive phrases and keywords and used them to retrieve 141 message on the oral-systemic connection. They were then able to identify recurring themes on the topic.

The leading topics were the association between periodontal and systemic diseases, the effect of dental materials or procedures on general health, and the impact of the oral-systemic connection on practice behaviours. It was also discovered that the dentists share research findings on oral and systemic health with colleagues online.

The authors write: 'Dentists are very cautious about the nature of the oral-systemic linkage that may not be causal. Nonetheless, they embrace the positive association as a motivating point for patients in practice. When treating patients with systemic conditions, dentists enquire about the cause of less common dental diseases potentially in relation to medical conditions in one-third of the cases and in half of the cases seek clinical guidelines and evidence-based interventions on treating dental diseases with established association with systemic conditions'.

The authors also conclude that more actionable clinical guidelines are needed for well-researched disease connections and that to improve dissemination and foster behavioural change, 'it is imperative to understand what information clinicians need and in which situations'.