5 Things Every Dental Team Is Getting Wrong About Diabetic Patients
Diabetes is showing up in our dental chairs every single day — and most dental teams are still operating from outdated playbooks. In our latest Rare Bird Dental CE podcast-style episode, Diabetes, Drugs & Dental Care: Beyond the A1C, pharmacologist Dr. Tom Viola and I sat down to unpack what today’s diabetes medications really mean for the entire dental team. What came out of that conversation surprised even me.
Here are five things we’re getting wrong. The why — and what to do about it — is in the episode.
1. We’re still treating diabetes like there are only two types.
Type 1 and Type 2 are what most of us learned. But that’s no longer the full picture, and one of the newer categories is quietly putting a huge number of patients at risk — including patients sitting in your chair right now who genuinely believe they’re “fine.”
We dig into why in the episode.
2. We’re taking the wrong kind of history.
There’s a small shift in how your team gathers information that completely changes how you assess risk for diabetic patients. Dr. Tom Viola said one line during our conversation that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about — and it reframes the entire intake process.
3. We blame the wrong thing for in-chair hypoglycemia.
Most teams assume that when a diabetic patient’s blood sugar crashes in the chair, the medication is to blame. It usually isn’t.
The real culprit is something so simple, so common, and so easy to prevent — and the front desk is in the perfect position to stop it before it ever starts. We tell you exactly what to ask.
4. We’re reaching for the wrong thing in an emergency.
Cake icing. Apple juice. Coca-Cola. We were all taught some version of this in school.
Tom explained on the episode why those aren’t actually what you want when a patient’s blood sugar drops — and we discuss what you should have in your emergency kit instead. It’s a small change. It costs about three dollars. It could save a life.
5. Our bias about Ozempic is clouding our clinical judgment.
GLP-1 medications are everywhere right now, and most clinicians have a quiet assumption about why patients are taking them. That assumption is causing teams to skip questions they should absolutely be asking — about side effects that fall squarely in our lane.
If you’re not sure what to ask, this episode will change that.
Dentistry Is a Team Sport
The thread running through the entire conversation: diabetes care in the dental setting isn’t a doctor problem or a hygienist problem. It’s a team problem. Front desk, assistants, hygienists, doctors — every single person plays a role in keeping these patients safe.
In the full episode, we discuss:
• The five types of diabetes (yes, five) and what each one means for treatment planning
• Which medications actually raise red flags on a health history
• A personal story from Tom about not recognizing his own hypoglycemia — despite teaching this for a living
• What an attorney once told Tom about clinic manuals that should change how every team documents
• How to bring this back to your office tomorrow without overhauling everything overnight
You don’t have to fix it all at once. But you do have to start.
Click here to watch the full course Diabetes, Drugs & Dental Care: Beyond the A1C — and bring your whole team with you. This one is worth an hour of your morning huddle.