title: Sudden sensorineural hearing loss associated with chronic periodontitis: a population-based study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although plenty of researchers have reported systemic effects originating from chronic periodontitis (CP) on potentially distal inflammatory processes, such as those leading to coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and cancer, no study has reported the association between CP and sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL). The present study explored the association between CP and SSNHL using a large, population-based dataset in Taiwan.
  
  
  METHODS
  A case-control study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Taiwan.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used administrative claims data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance program to identify 2,436 subjects with SSNHL and to randomly select 7,308 controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  A conditional logistic regression analysis was conducted to calculate the odds ratio (OR) for having been previously diagnosed with CP between cases and controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 1,663 (17.1%) of the 9,744 sampled subjects had received a CP diagnosis before the index date; 520 (21.4%) were cases and 1143 (15.6%) were controls. The χ2 test suggested that there was a significant difference in the prevalence of previous SSNHL between cases and controls (p < 0.001). The conditional logistic regression revealed after adjusting for hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, renal disease, coronary heart disease, obesity, and stroke, the OR of having previously received a CP diagnosis among cases was 1.44 (95% CI = 1.29∼1.63) that of controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study found that SSNHL was significantly associated with a previous diagnosis of CP. Further prospective studies are warranted to confirm our findings and clarify the underlying pathomechanism.
authors.affiliation: *Department of Otolaryngology, Taipei City Hospital; †School of Health Care Administration, ‡Department of Neurology, and §Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University; ∥Department of Neurosurgery, Taipei City Hospital; and ¶Community Medicine Research Center and Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chuan-Song
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Tzong-Hann
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Herng-Ching
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Jau-Jiuan
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Sheu
authors.forename: Dachen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D055113:Chronic Periodontitis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003639:Hearing Loss, Sudden / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology