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CGM for Type 2 Diabetes: As important and impactful as it is for T1D


Jan. 22, 20255 min read

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The content in this article should not be taken as medical advice. Please consult your healthcare provider regarding your individual health needs and Dexcom alert settings.
When patients visit Dr. Thomas Grace of the Blanchard Valley Diabetes Center in Findlay, Ohio, and are diagnosed with diabetes, they might be surprised his first prescription isn’t medication.
“The primary prescription I write for people with diabetes for whom continuous glucose monitoring is indicated is a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), because it’s vital to understand how our behavior affects our glucose before adding medications,” Grace said. “A Dexcom CGM is a tool that can give insight into the quality of foods we eat and help reinforce proper dietary decisions and the importance of getting regular physical activity. All the major academic bodies recommend behavior modification as the very first thing to treat people with Type 2 diabetes, and CGM is the tool that helps patients understand why that is so important.”
Grace can certainly vouch. As Dexcom’s head of advocacy, a doctor specializing in diabetes treatment and someone who also manages his Type 1 diabetes with a Dexcom CGM paired with an insulin pump, he knows the positive impact a CGM can have on quality of life, mental well- being and overall physical health.
And as a seasoned clinician, he also believes in the power of CGM for Type 2 diabetes and advocates for patients to use the technology when indicated. It helps his patients improve their daily diabetes management. And after he prescribes medications, the CGM glucose readings help him adjust them appropriately for patients based on what they need.
“It's just the most important prescription I can write for anyone with Type 2 diabetes,” he said. “Because this is a technology that people with diabetes, whether Type 1 or Type 2, deserve to have. Our patients do better when they have access to their glucose data consistently throughout the day. And as a clinician, I'm so much more informed about my patients and I can make more educated choices for them with the CGM data.”
Grace describes a CGM to patients as a wearable small electronic device on top of the skin with a small wire that penetrates underneath to monitor in real time the glucose in the body’s interstitial fluid. As it measures, it also transmits glucose readings to an external device, either a smartphone*, smartwatch* or receiver.
“The accuracy is as good as using a traditional glucometer1, the difference being a CGM gets readings consistently and can predict where your glucose is not only currently at but also where it's going,” Grace said. “This is very powerful information for someone with diabetes using this technology, because they and we clinicians can adapt based on the trends we get from a CGM.”
And using a CGM eliminates the need for fingersticks, a common pain point for those with diabetes.
†Fingersticks required for diabetes treatment decisions if symptoms or expectations do not match readings.
“Continuous glucose monitoring has gotten so accurate1 over the last few years that it is now deemed by the FDA to be non-adjunctive use, meaning we no longer need to poke our fingers because the technology is as accurate, if not more accurate,1 than any of the glucometers on the market,” Grace said.



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*Smart device sold separately. To view a list of compatible devices, visit dexcom.com/compatibility. †Fingersticks required for diabetes treatment decisions if symptoms or expectations do not match readings.
1 Garg SK, et al. Accuracy and Safety of Dexcom G7 Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Adults with Diabetes. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2022;24(6):373-380.
BRIEF SAFETY STATEMENT: Failure to use the Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitoring System and its components according to the instructions for use provided with your device and available at https://www.dexcom.com/safety-information and to properly consider all indications, contraindications, warnings, precautions, and cautions in those instructions for use may result in you missing a severe hypoglycemia (low blood glucose) or hyperglycemia (high blood glucose) occurrence and/or making a treatment decision that may result in injury. If your glucose alerts and readings from the Dexcom CGM do not match symptoms, use a blood glucose meter to make diabetes treatment decisions. Seek medical advice and attention when appropriate, including for any medical emergency.
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