Association between Periodontal Disease and Systemic Inflammatory Conditions Using Electronic Health Records: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Aims: To investigate the association between periodontal disease and systemic inflammatory conditions and examine the link between medical conditions and the extent of missing teeth in a large population. Methods: In this retrospective study, a total of 4890 randomly selected patients who had attended the University of Minnesota dental clinics were analyzed. Severity of periodontal disease was determined based on the percentage of bone loss, evaluated through the examination of a full-mouth intraoral series of radiographs. The number of missing teeth was calculated from the examined radiographs, while ten systemic inflammatory conditions were extracted from patients’ self-reported medical histories. Results: Moderate bone loss was observed in 730 (14.9%) and severe in 323 (6.6%) patients of the total population, while the mean number of missing teeth was 3.54 ± 3.93. The prevalence of systemic conditions and tobacco use were gender-dependent (p < 0.05). Regression analysis showed that hypertension, arthritis, asthma, diabetes and HIV were associated significantly with the severity of bone loss, while diabetes and lupus with the extent of missing teeth. Conclusions: The findings reported in our study add to this body of knowledge, strengthening the association between periodontal disease with systemic inflammatory conditions.