Systemic disorders in patients with periodontal disease.
OBJECTIVE
Over the past 10 years several studies have been published pointing towards a relationship between periodontal disease and various systemic disorders or diseases. The purpose of this retrospective study was to investigate the occurrence of self-reported systemic disorders in patients referred to a specialist clinic for periodontal treatment and to explore possible relationships between general health and periodontal disease severity in this population.


METHODS
Data were collected from the dental records and the health questionnaires of 1006 subjects. Stepwise multiple linear regression analyses were adopted to calculate correlations between systemic disorders as independent variables and number of remaining teeth and the relative frequency of periodontal pockets of 5 mm or more, respectively, as the dependent variable.


RESULTS
The number of remaining teeth was significantly and positively correlated to the presence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and rheumatoid disease after adjustment for age, sex and smoking. The relative frequency of diseased sites, however, was not significantly correlated to any one of the investigated systemic health disorders.


CONCLUSIONS
No significant associations between investigated systemic disorders and periodontal disease severity were found if the relative frequency of deep periodontal pockets was used as the clinical parameter for periodontal disease severity. However, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and rheumatoid disease were found to be significantly correlated to number of lost teeth, which may represent one aspect of periodontal health. This result held true in nonsmokers only.
Lagervall
Maria
M
Department of Periodontology at Skanstull, Folktandvården i Stockholms län AB, Götgatan 100, 118-62 Stockholm, Sweden. maria.lagervall@ftv.sll.se
Jansson
Leif
L
Bergström
Jan
J
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000150:complications; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D004194:Disease; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D008875:Middle Aged; D010510:Periodontal Diseases / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications*; D010512:Periodontal Index; D010514:Periodontal Pocket / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012216:Rheumatic Diseases / Q000150:complications; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric