Bipolar Today

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According to a recent meta-analysis in the British Journal of Psychiatry, those who have mental illnesses are 3.4 times more likely to have lost their teeth and 6.2 times more likely to have decayed, filled or missing teeth. The journal doesn’t argue that this is a result of mental illness directly, but indirectly. An interesting article in the University of Queensland News provides a number of possible explanations, from homelessness to paranoia about going to the dentist to lack of funds.

Commentary

I’m not at all surprised by this statistic, as those with mental health issues have almost everything going against them in terms of oral health. While the article was written in Australia and published in Britain, Canada (where I live) provides a good example of the kind of barriers that people with mental illness face. Dental care, for somewhat bizarre historical reasons, is not included in public health care in Canada. Because those with mental illnesses tend to be (much) lower on the socio-economic spectrum, that harms our ability to get proper dental care.

The recommendations of the studies authors, that those who have mental health illnesses get proper checkups for oral health as a part of their care, is a good start. Certainly it would catch some of the worst problems before they get out of hand. However, so long as dental care is treated differently from medical care, this problem will likely be fairly intractable.

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3. Bicyclist Rides for Mental Health Awareness
4. State Mental Health Funding Cut By $1.1B Since 2009
5. Glenn Close: Advocate For Mental Health