Blood pressure measurement in dental offices and dentists' cardiovascular risk management: A cross-sectional study.

Abstract

Background: Blood pressure measurement (BPM) is a primary test for detecting and managing cardiovascular risk, is an inexpensive strategy and can be performed by non-physician health workers (NPHWs). This study explored the association between the BPM in dental offices and other dentists' practices related to cardiovascular risk management.

Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. A self-administered electronic survey was used, validated by experts with more than 10 years of clinical, teaching and research experience. Simple random sampling was used to select the participants at an anonymized database. The survey was completed by dentists who practice clinically at least part-time in Colombia. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were conducted.

Results: A total of 232 dentists were interviewed. Blood pressure was measured in the dental office by 40.5% of the dentists, with 27.2% using an automatic device. After adjusting for age, education, and support staff, an association was observed between the absence of BPM in dental offices and the following practices: not inquiring about alcohol use, physical inactivity, high cholesterol, obesity, a lower likelihood of measuring glucose in the dental office, not referring patients to a laboratory for glucose measurement, not communicating with medical professionals to arrange patient treatment, and not educating people with obesity about the risk of systemic disease.

Conclusions: BPM in dental offices is limited. Most dentists report inquiring about modifiable cardiovascular risk factors, as well as making referrals, providing counseling, and offering education. However, the absence of BPM in dental offices is associated with the omission of other practices related to cardiovascular risk management. NPHWs like dentists can task sharing cardiovascular risk management. Key words:Blood pressure, hypertension, cardiovascular risk factors, primary prevention, dental office.