According to Khamaiseh, & AlBashtawy (2013), oral health serves as a significant indicator of an individual’s overall well-being, and health. In fact, oral health has shown to have a close association with diabetes, whereby diabetic patients experience a wider array of oral health concerns such as taste disturbances, which are often precipitated by diabetes medications and treatment procedures such as haemodialysis (Lamster et al., 2008). On a similar note, diabetes being a chronic illness has a severe effect on an individual’s oral health, particularly during episodes of hospitalization of diabetic patients (Hanne et al., 2012). For this purpose, health care delivery in the context of diabetes management should be comprehensive enough and emphasize on alleviating oral health concerns that have shown to have a close association with diabetes (Fitzpatrick & Duley, 2012). Certainly, this will improve the quality of life of diabetics and reduce economic burdens aligned with diabetes management (Meetoo, 2014).
References
Fitzpatrick, P., & Duley, S. (2012). Lack of Access in Healthcare Delivery: A Model for Using Dental Hygienists in a Cost Effective Manner to Help Address the Oral Healthcare Problem. Hospital Topics, 90 (3), 82-90.
Hanne, K., Ingelise, T., Linda, C., Ulrich, P. (2012). Oral Status and the Need for Oral Health Care Among Patients Hospitalized with Acute Medical Condition. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 21, 2851-2859.
Khamaiseh, A., & AlBashtawy, M. (2013). Oral Health Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices among Secondary School Students. British Journal of Scholl of Nursing, 8 (4), 194- 199.
Lamster, I., Lalla, E., Borgnakke, W., Taylor, G. (2008). The Relationship between Oral Health and Diabetes Mellitus. The Journal of the American Dental Association, 139 (10), 19s-24s.
Meetoo, D. (2014). Diabetes: Complications and the Economic Burden. British Journal of Healthcare Management, 20 (2), 60-68.
