Association between Dental Scaling and Reduced Risk of End-Stage Renal Disease: A Nationwide Matched Cohort Study

Abstract

Periodontitis is prevalent in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is also associated with kidney function decline. It is unclear whether dental scaling treatment prevents the progression of CKD. In a nationwide cohort study, Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database was used to select people with CKD. Propensity score-matching procedures were performed to compare the long-term risk of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) between CKD patients with and without the receipt of dental scaling. A total of 33,637 matched pairs with CKD were included, with 503,373 person-years of follow-up for analyses. Dental scaling was significantly associated with a lower risk of ESRD (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR): 0.83, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.77–0.90). In addition, there was a dose-dependent relationship between the frequency of dental scaling and a reduced risk of ESRD. Dental scaling was also linked to reduced risks of major adverse cardiovascular events (aHR: 0.91, 95% CI: 0.87–0.95), sepsis (aHR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.77–0.85), and all-cause mortality (aHR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.76–0.87). Dental scaling was significantly associated with lower risks of progression to ESRD in patients with CKD. Regular dental scaling may serve as a prophylactic measure for kidney function decline.