According to an article on a website for dental professionals, dentists are often the first to detect eating disorders in their patients. During the upcoming National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (February 22-28, 2009) Delta Dental Plans Association will be working to increase awareness of the possible oral health problems that can result from disordered eating behaviors.

Disordered eating refers to any eating behavior that disrupts physical, mental, or psychological health. Because eating disorders often rob the body of needed nutrients or disturb the body's ability to properly absorb these nutrients, they can cause damage to teeth, as well as muscles and major organs. According to dental experts, purging (vomiting to rid the body of undigested food) takes an especially high toll on the teeth and mouth, and restrictive eating (anorexia especially) denies the body the nutrients it needs to maintain strong teeth. A Delta Dental representative commented:

"Stomach acids can damage teeth with repeated exposures during purging for those individuals with bulimia nervosa. For those individuals with anorexia nervosa, which is characterized by self-induced starvation, poor nutrition can affect oral health by increasing the risk for periodontal [gum] diseases."

Dentists look for various signs and symptoms to determine whether a patient has an eating disorder. These include halitosis (bad breath), sensitive teeth and eroded tooth enamel, teeth that are worn and appear almost translucent, mouth sores, dry mouth, cracked lips, bleeding gums, and tender mouth, throat, and salivary glands. (Source: www.dentaleconomics.com)

Labels: dectection, diagnosis, dentists

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Approximately 65 percent of American women have disordered eating behaviors. This data comes from a 2008 study conducted by Self Magazine, in collaboration with the University of Northern Carolina at Chapel Hill. An additional 10 percent of women reported some symptoms related to eating disorders. In total, 75 percent of women surveyed showed some relationship to disordered eating.

Cynthia R. Bulik, Ph.D., William and Jeanne Jordan Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders in the UNC School of Medicine's department of psychiatry and director of the UNC Eating Disorders Program, commented on the study's findings:

"Our survey found that these behaviors cut across racial and ethnic lines and are not limited to any one group. ... Women who identified their ethnic backgrounds as Hispanic or Latina, white, black or African American and Asian were all represented among the women who reported unhealthy eating behaviors." (Source: sciencedaily.com)

Labels: treatment, symptoms, diagnosis

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Though anorexia and bulimia are the most well-known eating disorders, the majority of sufferers fit into another category. As many as 60 percent of eating disorder patients are diagnosed as having an eating disorder “not otherwise specified” (EDNOS).

“This group is so vast, and the causes within it so diverse, that many in the field believe it creates more problems than it does solutions in terms of treating patients and understanding the syndromes. Patients lumped into this unspecified group can also have misperceptions about their condition, thinking it is not as serious as anorexia or bulimia.” [Source: MSNBC]

Physicians and psychiatrists are trying to solve the problem by revising the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which is due to be published in 2013. Often called “the psychiatric bible”, the DSM is the tool used to diagnose most mental health issues.

Proposed revisions to eating disorder-related diagnoses include broadening the criteria for anorexia and bulimia, and separating out some more commonly-known conditions such as binge eating into their own categories.

 

Labels: dsm-iv, diagnosis, ednos

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 0 Comments