Detection of Undiagnosed Prediabetes and Diabetes in Dental Patients: A Proposal of a Dental-Office-Friendly Diabetes Screening Tool

Objective: This study was designed to develop a dental-office-friendly diabetes self-screening tool for diabetes mellitus (DM) and prediabetes (PreDM). Methods: Consecutive dental patients, aged 18 years or older, without history of DM or PreDM, completed a 14-question questionnaire without assistance. They subsequently underwent onsite finger-sticks for capillary blood collection for glycohemoglobin (A1c) measurement. Results: Of the total 500 patients who completed the study, 302 were women (60.4%) and 198 were men (39.6%), with a collective mean age of 47.8 (±16.8) years old. The prevalence of PreDM and DM was 19.2% and 1.2%, respectively. Predictors of PreDM or DM included age, >10% above ideal body weight, waist size above 40” for men or 35” for women, reported hypertension, reported abnormal lipids, tingling of hands or feet, and visual symptoms or conditions (blurring, cataracts, glaucoma). Conclusions: This study introduces a newly developed, user-friendly, PreDM and DM self-screening tool, abbreviated as DiDDO (Diabetes detection in the dental office). This screening tool requires no body weighing or BMI calculation (undesirable by dentists) nor laboratory tests or blood pressure measurement, allowing dentists to identify patients at moderate and high risk for DM/PreDM, and perform (or refer for) diagnostic A1c testing. This dental-office-friendly self-screening tool is proposed for validation in other dental populations.