John Libonati

Dentists Can Help to Recognize Celiac Disease

by John Libonati on July 21st, 2008

gluten free dentist
Photo © ADAM

Dentistry Blog

By Tammy Davenport, Guide to Dentistry since 2005




Tags: , , , , , ,

5 Responses to “Dentists Can Help to Recognize Celiac Disease”

  1. Angie says:

    TINA- you obviously have not done the research. No one test is 100% diagnostic. Not even blood- I went though a lot as many others have before the true diagnosis was found. They mislead no one- get your facts straight!

  2. Tina says:

    Yes there is a blood test to see if someone has Celiac disease. Your article contradicts itself. The blood test you mentioned IS the test for Celiac disease. Don’t mislead people.

    • John Libonati John Libonati says:

      Good point. You are correct that certain blood tests indicate celiac disease. However, it is important to note that no one test is 100% diagnostic for celiac disease. It is through a combination of observation of symptoms, blood tests, (tTG, AGA, dAGA), endoscopy with biopsy AND improvement after following a gluten-free diet that a doctor can make a positive diagnosis of celiac disease. A major problem with celiac disease testing is that patients and physicians are unaware that the “celiac disease tests” can (and do) provide false negatives. Because many doctors do not understand how the tests work, if a blood test is “negative,” they tell a patient, “You don’t have it.” In fact, the blood tests are not pass/fail. They tell you the level of antibodies in the blood. The pass point is the level of antibodies at which most people would have enough damage in the intestine to produce a positive finding on endoscopy with biopsy of the small intestine. Therefore, if the blood test results are not high enough, the result is negative – but the person could still have celiac disease. They may not produce enough antibodies if they are too sick or if tested again in three months could be very high. Please see Diagnosis and Testing for more information.

  3. Mechiell says:

    I was looking under the denistry. I really would like to know where I can find a list of medications used by dentist and if they are gluten free. I recently had some fillings and need more and they used septocaine and lidocaine. Id really appreciate any help.

  4. joseph smariela says:

    Great article. My dentist is local, amazing and not that expensive.

Leave a Reply