Periodontal disease and diabetes mellitus

Periodontal disease (PD) is one of the most commonly known human chronic disorders.The relationship between PD and several systemic diseases such as diabetes mellitus(DM) has been increasingly recognized over the past decades.

Objective:

The purpose of this review is to provide the reader with knowledge concerning therelationship between PD and DM. Many articles have been published in the englishand Portuguese literature over the last 50 years examining the relationshipbetween these two chronic diseases. Data interpretation is often confounded byvarying definitions of DM, PD and different clinical criteria were applied todetermine the prevalence, extent and severity of PD, levels of glycemic controland diabetes-related complications.

Methods:

This paper provides a broad overview of the predominant findings from researchconducted using the BBO (Bibliografia Brasileira de Odontologia), MEDLINE, LILACSand PubMed for Controlled Trials databases, in english and Portuguese languagespublished from 1960 to October 2012. Primary research reports on investigations ofrelationships between DM/DM control, PD/periodontal treatment andPD/DM/diabetes-related complications identified relevant papers and meta-analysespublished in this period.

Results:

This paper describes the relationship between PD and DM and answers the followingquestions: 1- The effect of DM on PD, 2- The effects of glycemic control on PD and3- The effects of PD on glycemic control and on diabetes-relatedcomplications.

Conclusions:

The scientific evidence reviewed supports diabetes having an adverse effect onperiodontal health and PD having an adverse effect on glycemic control and ondiabetes-related complications. Further research is needed to clarify theserelationships and larger, prospective, controlled trials with ethnically diversepopulations are warranted to establish that treating PD can positively influenceglycemic control and possibly reduce the burden of diabetes-relatedcomplications.