Investigating the Link

By P. Mark Bartold, DDSc, PhD

In recent years, there has been increasing evidence to suggest that periodontal diseases are associated with a large number of systemic conditions. Among the best studied of these are diabetes, preterm birth, low-birth weight, cardiovascular diseases, pulmonary disease, obesity, and osteoporosis.¹ Each of these conditions has also been associated with rheumatoid arthritis (Table 1).² While the association between rheumatoid arthritis and these conditions may be due to medication usage, studies have demonstrated that relationships between rheumatoid arthritis and systemic conditions can be detected following removal of the confounding issue of medications.³ A common feature linking these disease associations for both periodontitis and rheumatoid arthritis appears to be the presence of chronic inflammation at both the local and systemic level.^4,5

* References can be found in the original article via the link below.
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