No abstract

This is the largest nation-based study examining the risk of diabetes in Asian patients with periodontitis. Those patients with periodontitis needing dental surgery have increased risk of future diabetes within 2 years compared with those participants with periodontitis not requiring dental surgery.

Purpose: Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease that results in loss of connective tissue and bone support. Evidence shows a possible relationship between periodontitis and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Methods: This population-based cohort study was conducted using data from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan, with a 13-year follow-up, to investigate the risk of AMD in patients with periodontitis. The periodontitis cohort included patients with newly diagnosed periodontitis between 2000 and 2012. The nonperiodontitis cohort was frequency-matched with the periodontitis cohort by age and sex, with a sample size of 41,661 in each cohort. Results: Patients with periodontitis had an increased risk of developing AMD compared with individuals without periodontitis (5.95 vs. 3.41 per 1,000 person-years, adjusted hazard ratio = 1.58 [95% confidence interval, 1.46–1.70]). The risk of developing AMD remained significant after stratification by age (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.48 [1.34–1.64] for age <65 years and 1.76 [1.57–1.97] for age ≥65 years), sex (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.40 [1.26–1.55] for women and 1.82 [1.63–2.04] for men), and presence of comorbidity (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.52 [1.40–1.66] for with comorbidity and 1.92 [1.63–2.26] for without comorbidity). In addition, patients with periodontitis showed an increased incidence for both nonexudative type AMD (5.43 vs. 3.13 per 1,000 person-years) and exudative type AMD (0.52 vs. 0.28 per 1,000 person-years). Conclusion: People with periodontitis could be at a greater risk of developing AMD than those without periodontitis. However, we need more evidence to support this association.