Prevalence of systemic diseases in dental patients

Objectives: To study the prevalence of systemic diseases in patients seeking dental treatments at the faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University. Methods: The files of 58,317 patients seeking dental treatments at the faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University from 2002-2004 were retrieved and reviewed for systemic diseases. Results: From a total of 58,317 patients, 7167 patients (12.2%) had systemic diseases. The systemic diseases in the present study in descending order of prevalence were allergy, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, heart diseases, thyroid diseases, asthma, liver diseases, blood diseases, hypotension, kidney diseases, epilepsy, lung diseases, SLE, G-6-PD, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, rheumatic fever, rheumatoid arthritis, Parkinson disease, diabetes insipidus and Bell's palsy. Conclusions: Even though the prevalence of systemic diseases in dental patients is not high, dentist should bear in mind that some of the patients may harbour systemic diseases which are contraindicated for certain dental procedures or medications or required special attention when treating these patients. Therefore a thorough history taking and careful clinical examinations are mandatory before commencing any dental treatment.