Resources for Medical Professionals
A curated library of peer-reviewed studies on the oral-systemic connection, grouped by condition so you can find what is relevant in seconds. Plus a patient dental-health assessment form you can download and use in your own practice today.
Use It Monday Morning
A short, plain-language form your patients can complete in the waiting room. It surfaces the signs of oral infection that rarely come up in a fifteen-minute visit, and it gives you a simple reason to start the oral-systemic conversation. Print it, add it to your intake packet, or hand it to a patient on the way out.
Free to use and share. No account required.
Why heart surgeons require dental clearance
Dr. Chuck on the pre-surgical dental clearance conversation, and why it belongs in cardiac care.
Watch the video
Video for dental professionals
A short explainer on the oral-systemic connection made specifically for dental and medical teams.
Watch the videoThe Evidence
Every source below was reviewed before it was added. Open a condition to see the studies. Each entry names the source and summarizes what it examines, and the association it describes is exactly that, an association that continues to be studied.
Bring It Into the Room
For a patient with high blood pressure, diabetes, or cardiovascular risk, ask when they last had a complete dental exam with X-rays. It takes seconds, and it often surfaces an untreated oral infection the patient never thought to mention.
Give the patient dental-health assessment form to anyone whose systemic condition might be influenced by an oral infection. It gives them a reason to see a dentist and something concrete to hand over when they get there.
Share a study from the library with the dentist or physician on the other side of your patient's care. The evidence has existed for years. What has been missing is the two providers actually talking to each other.
Submit Research Section
This library grows because clinicians send us what they find. If you know a study or article on the oral-systemic connection that other clinicians should be reading, send it over. We review every submission and add the relevant ones.
Submit a studyHelp Close the Gap
The evidence connecting oral health to the rest of the body already exists. What is missing is getting it in front of the clinicians who can act on it. That is the work of The Dental Medical Convergence, a donor-funded nonprofit you can help by sharing this library or supporting it directly.
Send this evidence library to a physician or dentist you work with. A referral gap closes fastest when the recommendation comes from a trusted colleague.
Every donation pays for the research curation, education, and outreach that move this evidence from the journals into real exam rooms.
Frequently Asked
The library is maintained by The Dental Medical Convergence, a nonprofit founded by Dr. Chuck Reinertsen, DMD, a dentist with more than forty years in practice and the author of Are Your Teeth Making You Sick?. Every source is reviewed before it is added, and clinicians are invited to submit studies for consideration.
The assessment form is free for any clinician to download, print, and use with patients, and no account or permission is required. If you would like printed copies for a clinic, contact us and we will help you get them.
Not on its own. Much of this evidence describes associations and shared mechanisms that continue to be studied, and the research community is still working out cause and effect. We present the studies so you can weigh them yourself.
Email your suggestion to AMA@TheDentalMedicalConvergence.org. We review every submission and add the relevant research to this page.
Yes, our Resources for Patients page presents the same connection in plain language, with guides and videos you can point patients to directly.
This page is provided for professional education and reference. It is not clinical guidance and does not replace your own clinical judgment or current practice guidelines. Each source links straight to the original research so you can evaluate it on its own terms, and its inclusion here is not an endorsement of any specific claim. A large share of this evidence points to associations, not settled causation, and remains an active area of study.
Every 40 seconds, someone dies from heart disease linked to poor oral health. Your donation helps us warn families about the deadly connection between oral health and heart disease before it's too late.
