Common chronic diseases and oral health issues could have a reciprocal and compounding impact on each other, suggests a new study.
The University of Helsinki study considered oral health as a predictive value for a variety of chronic diseases. One of the key findings was that periodontitis can be linked to diabetes.
Speaking to the media outlet EurekaAlert! lecturer, Pia Heikkilä said, “We know from prior studies that periodontitis has a connection to many chronic diseases. Thanks to our exceptionally long-term dataset, we were able to analyse causalities and bidirectional effects between these factors.
“The research dataset was unusually extensive, encompassing some 70,000 study subjects, which increases the reliability and weight of the study.”
Results of the study show that diabetes can accelerate the progress of periodontitis, in turn complicating diagnosis and treatment. Researchers noted that periodontitis development was complicated further by undiagnosed or poorly managed diabetes.
“Based on our findings, successful treatment of periodontitis has a positive effect on the treatment outcomes for diabetes and reduces the cost of care. Similarly, the successful treatment of diabetes slows down the progression of periodontitis while reducing medical costs,” said Professor Timo Sorsa from the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Diseases at the University of Helsinki.
Read the full study here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/froh.2022.956072/full