here is no doubt that oral health and general well-being are inextricably bound. Many conditions that plague the body are manifested in the mouth, a readily accessible vantage point from which to view the onset, progress, and management of numerous systemic diseases.

What does this mean for traditional dental research? It means that perhaps this term is an anachronism, that it limits the field of inquiry to only the teeth and surrounding tissues, that the word "traditional" no longer applies.

In fact, there is nothing traditional about the science of the oral, dental and craniofacial tissues. The teeth and gingiva (gums) are but one vital part of a remarkably dynamic system that touches on virtually every biomedical and behavioral discipline. Research in virology, immunology, genetics, biochemistry, developmental biology, and many other fields is carried out by men and women whose names end in PhD, DDS, and MD. They are laboratory researchers. They are patient-oriented clinical scientists. They see the beauty and order of a world at its molecular level. They engineer genes to correct nature's mistakes. Their educational backgrounds and training experiences are as diverse as the diseases and systems they study. What these scientists share in common, however, is the recognition that oral health is not an independent entity cut off from the rest of the body. Rather, it is woven deeply into the fabric of overall health.

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The Oral-Systemic Health Connection -Table of Contents