Larry Cornpicker is a fifty six year old male from the small town of Bear Creek Wisconsin. He owns about 300 acres of land that he grows corn on. The stress of the job sometimes gets to him and he has many early mornings and late nights. His blood pressure tends to run higher and the doctors have been watching it but Larry is not on many blood pressure medications at this time. He was diagnosed with type one diabetes mellitus at the age of nineteen and is insulin dependent. When Larry was younger, he had good control over his blood sugar and had no issues with eating regularly and taking his insulin but now he has more problems as he has gotten older and taken on reasonability of the farm. When it is planting and harvest season, Larry has …show more content…
He had amalgam fillings due to decay on teeth three, four, five, twelve, fourteen, twenty-eight and twenty-nine. There was a stainless steel crown on tooth number thirty-one which is also mesially drifted which is due to tooth number thirty being gone. Tooth numbers three and fourteen are both super erupted with number three having a visible class two furcation. Both teeth were mobile and do not have the best change of staying in the mouth. Tooth nineteen and thirty-one were extracted due to severe decay which is causing teeth three and fourteen to be super erupted. There was a diastema between tooth eight and nine. Tooth numbers twelve, thirteen, and fourteen have had root canals. The tooth decay can be attributed to the fact that Larry only brushes once a day and does not floss. For the decay that Larry had, the dentist did root canals on three teeth and placed amalgam fillings on seven teeth about seven years ago. One stainless steel crown was placed at his last visit 5 years ago to protect a tooth that had decay, from breaking. Larry’s blood pressure was taken in office as well and was found to be a little high at one hundred forty over ninety. This puts him at stage one hypertension. His plaque free score was fifty-eight percent. Surprisingly, his calculus level was not …show more content…
As learned in DHG one hundred and twenty, diabetes can cause tooth decay, gingivitis, and periodontitis (Eagen, 2017). Management of blood sugar levels is key to preventing tooth decay and gum disease when the patient suffers from diabetes according to Diabetes.org (American Diabetes Association 2012). Since Larry does not have good control over his blood sugar, he is put at more of a risk for tooth decay and periodontal disease. Another factor that has put Larry at rick for periodontal disease is smoking. Smoking weakens the body’s ability to fight off infections (Anderson, 2016). Since Larry used to smoke and has diabetes, he is at double the risk for periodontal disease and needs to take measures to control both. One thing he has done that has helped him is quitting smoking. If he can get better control over his blood sugar levels now, that would also greatly help with his periodontal disease and limit the amount of bone loss he will experience. Larry’s high blood pressure could be caused by his current periodontal disease and stress that comes along with his job. According to perio.org, poor oral hygiene habits may lead to increased risk of hypertension (“Study: Poor Oral Hygiene Habits,” 2015). Since Larry currently has diabetes, is a previous smoker, and has poor oral hygiene, he has developed periodontal disease. Since Larry has developed periodontal disease that that is one factor