“you cannot disconnect your mouth from the rest of your body,” siqueira said.
the partnership spans all 10 dental schools in the country and siqueira expects it will involve between 7,000 and 8,000 people between the ages of one and 79. saliva samples from those participants will be sent to his lab at the university of saskatchewan, where researchers are looking to saliva to unlock secrets about everything from how much fluoride is in your mouth to whether you have covid-19.
siqueira, president of the canadian association for dental research, says such a study has not been done for 13 years. it was originally slated to begin in summer 2020 but was postponed because of the covid-19 pandemic. barring another surge in cases, siqueira now hopes it will start sometime in early 2022.
he believes the combination of medical and demographic data will likely reveal some unpleasant truths about canadians’ access to professionals who care for their teeth, gums and the rest of their mouth.
dentistry is not covered under the canada health act, and the canadian institutes of health research reported in 2015 that nearly 96 per cent of dental payments in canada were made under private third-party insurance plans. in 2020, the same organization put the per capita cost of insurance at $443. in 2019, statistics canada’s canadian community health survey estimated more than one in five canadians had avoided going to the dentist at least once because of the associated cost.