Aim To determine consideration of periodontitis among Nigerian diabetologists. Search Strategy Search phrase used: Nigeria AND (diabetes OR diabetic OR diabetics) yielding 750 studies Quality assessment: 7 Criteria used(Adapted to fit our research question) Synthesis Approach: Metaethnography combined with a bit of Narrative Synthesis Key findings: Diabetes mortality and morbidity still high in Nigeria, Glycemic control poor in most patients. Nigerian diabetologists appear to be unaware of link between poor glycemic control and periodontitis. Hypotheses resulting from synthesis Most Nigerian studies on diabetes have centered on microangiopathy, mortality and determinants of glycemic control. None of the studies by Nigerian diabetologists have mentioned, considered or advocated periodontal evaluation as part of glycemic control protocol for Nigerian diabetics. Nigerian diabetologists appear unaware of the link between periodontitis and poor glycemic control. Current unacceptable mortality and morbidity of diabetes in Nigeria might be connected with this great omission. While the non-consideration of periodontitis appears to be the missing link for unexplained poor glycemic control among Nigerian diabetics, further studies in the form of surveying Nigerian diabetologists or interviews are needed to fully establish this missing link.

Table 1: What we did: The process of using metaethnography and narrative synthesis to arrive propose a hypothesis. Hypothesis “Nigerian diabetologists appear unaware of the link between periodontitis and poor glycemic control.”