10 Shocking Diseases You Didn’t Realize Your Dentist Could Spot

Osteoporosis

The bone disease is difficult to detect because it has no symptoms, which means most people don’t know they have it until they get a bone fracture or take a bone density test. However, an annual trip to the dentist’s office may be just what your bones need before it’s too late.

“Osteoporosis does not cause changes in the teeth, but it does cause changes in the bone that supports the teeth,” Alyson Hope Koslow, DDS, a clinical assistant professor of restorative dentistry at the University of Illinois Chicago told Everyday Health.

“This may show up as a receding gum line and loose teeth.” And bone loss in the mouth typically means there are signs of bone loss elsewhere in the body.