The Centers for Disease Control says 86 million Americans have prediabetes, many of whom don't know that they have a condition that can be reveresed before it becomes full-blown diabetes. NY1's Erin Billups has more on an effort underway to get more folks screened for diabetes in an uncommon place - the dental chair.

Seven hundred thousand New Yorkers have diabetes, but the city Department of Health says almost one-third of them don't know they do.

It's a persistent epidemic, but Dr. Shiela Strauss of NYU's Colleges of Nursing and Dentistry says it could be slowed, in part, by having dentists screen for diabetes.

"There are 20 million people in this country who see a dental provider in a given year but not a primary care provider," she says. "There seems to be promise in using the dental venue."

There is a link between diabetes and gum disease. In a study published in the American Journal of Public Health, Strauss confirms that testing the blood collected from gums for hemoglobin A1c was just as effective as testing blood pricked from the finger.

"We were able to get a correlation that was almost perfect," Strauss says.

Nine out of 10 people who have prediabetes don't know they have it. Juliet Jay was one of them.

"I was very surprised because as far as I know, if I have reactive hypoglycemia, I don't think I'll ever approach diabetes," Jay says.

But after finding out, she immediately changed her eating habits.

"I don't want to have diabetes," Jay says. "I know what diabetes can do to people, and I've seen people lose their legs. I want to be healthy."

After testing more than 400 patients, Strauss says like Jay, many who were prediabetic were unaware of their status.

"Slightly over half of them had values either in the prediabetes or diabetes ranges," Strauss says.

As health care becomes less fragmented, researchers hope the dental diabetes exam becomes standard practice.

"There are many steps along the way, but I think more and more people are becoming aware of the connection between oral health and systemic health," Strauss says.

If caught in the prediabetic stage, the impact to the body can be reversed with diet and exercise, diabetes avoided.