Medical history may be the most important aspect of dental appointments. It’s the first thing that is addressed when patients are seated, often determining the progression of the appointment. Current medical conditions and medications are important for the dental clinician to know and understand—they can affect not only the patient’s oral health but also their appointment treatment plan.   

What to consider

Some conditions that require medications include cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure, stroke, and atherosclerosis—as well as other conditions like diabetes, depression/anxiety, and osteoporosis. Many medications that treat these conditions have side effects like xerostomia (diuretics for hypertension), taste aversion (metformin for diabetes), orthostatic hypotension (many medications for hypertension), bruxism (SSRIs for depression), dry cough (lisinopril for hypertension), gingival hyperplasia (amlodipine for hypertension), bleeding (aspirin for cardiovascular protection), muscle weakness (atorvastatin for high cholesterol), and medication related osteonecrosis of the jaw (bisphosphonates for osteoporosis).¹

It is important to consider these are just some singular side effects for individual medications, but when polypharmacy is involved where a patient is taking several medications a day, it can be more troublesome due to compounding side effects.  In fact, the CDC states that about a third of adults aged 60-70 use five or more medications daily.²  

To some, dealing with the combined side effects of multiple medications may dissuade patients from taking their prescriptions entirely, ultimately leading to negative outcomes.  

One question omitted from medical histories is how often a patient exercises. Exercise has been shown to improve and/or prevent many different medical conditions and diseases, including cardiovascular disease.³ An elevated heart rate at 70-85% of your VO2max for 20 minutes three times a week can improve blood flow over time and stimulate the growth of capillaries.

Benefits of exercise

The growth of new capillaries helps with efficiency of blood flow, which can decrease blood pressure. Blood vessels can also become wider and more flexible with regular exercise, leading to decreased pressure.3 Other exercises can help prevent osteoporosis.  Weight bearing exercise, or resistance training with heavy weights (more than the 5 lb dumbbells) can cause bones to adapt to the extra force and become denser and stronger. Additionally, plyometrics (jump training) like jumping rope, box jumps, and jumping squats can produce similar results.³

Regular exercise can help improve and also prevent the development of diabetes. Weight training and aerobic exercise increase glucose control by increasing the utilization of blood glucose into your muscles and out of the blood vessels, decreasing insulin resistance. When it comes to depression, dancing and aerobic exercise have been shown to be more effective than the leading antidepressant medications by boosting mood enhancing neurotransmitters and stimulating growth of new neuronal connections in the hippocampus of the brain, which regulates mood.⁴

Research has demonstrated that healthy young adults with generalized anxiety disorder and/or major depressive disorder experienced a clinically significant reduction in depressive symptoms after an eight-week resistance training regime.⁵ Exercise can even help improve your immune system by increasing the release of cytokines (powerful anti-inflammatory proteins) from the muscles. Lastly, regular exercise can help with obesity by reducing overall weight and body fat percentage.³ 

Since exercise has been shown to be effective in decreasing the risk of developing some medical conditions and even improving conditions which can then lead to decreased use of medications, it may warrant asking the question of whether a patient has an exercise routine. The dental professional is very well versed in the link between oral health and systemic health and often explains that link to patients for reasons strictly related to the dental world. Understanding the benefits of exercise and overall health and how it can decrease risk of developing medical conditions, improve outcomes of medical conditions, and decrease use of medications that have many side effects may be another topic for the dental clinician to educate their patients on as well.  

Asking the right questions

An easy way for the dental professional to start incorporating this question into a routine is simply making a note and keeping it in view wherever the medical history is reviewed. Write down a few of the key points mentioned earlier regarding specific exercises and how they help with certain medical conditions. Do some research on local fitness centers to see which ones have personal trainers that have appropriate credentials like NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine), ACE (American Council on Exercise), or a bachelor’s or master’s degree in kinesiology or exercise science.

Knowing that the trainer has one or more of these credentials is important because it can be intimidating for some people to start an exercise routine. Having someone who can guide them, teach them proper exercise techniques, and focus on their individual health and goals is ideal. Along with these practical recommendations, offering personal stories about success with exercise as medicine may offer a connection to and encourage the patient to start or continue their exercise journey.  

It is also important to understand that, like most medications, exercise cannot be prescribed to patients by a dental professional unless they have one of these certifications in personal training or similar. However, dental professionals have been making recommendations for their patients to see various medical specialists for a long time without diagnosing them with something (like hypertension), so recommending a visit to a physician or a reputable personal trainer is highly manageable.

Editor's note: This article appeared in the October 2026 print edition of RDH magazine. Dental hygienists in North America are eligible for a complimentary print subscription. Sign up here.

References

1. The top 200 drugs of 2024. ClinCalc. Accessed June 26, 2026. https://clincalc.com/drugstats/ 

2. Stierman B, Afful J, Carroll MD, et al. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2017–March 2020 prepandemic data files—Development of files and prevalence estimates for selected health outcomes. National Center for Health Statistics. 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db470.pdf 

3. Powers SK, Howley ET, Quindry JC. Exercise Physiology: Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance. 12th ed. McGraw Hill; 2024. 

4. Jossain MN, Lee J, Choi H, Kwak Y, Kim J. The impact of exercise on depression: How moving makes your brain and body feel better. Phys Act Nutr. 2024;28(2):43-51. 

5. Gordon BR, McDowell CP, Lyons M, Herring MP. Resistance exercise training for anxiety and worry symptoms among young adults: a randomized controlled trial. Sci Rep. 2020;10(1):17548. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-746086