New research reveals that patients with chronic kidney disease who also have severe gum disease or periodontitis have a higher risk of death than chronic kidney disease patients with healthy gums.
The study – led by the University of Birmingham in the UK and published in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology – provides further evidence of a link between oral health and chronic diseases, say the authors.
Comparable to the effect of diabetes
The researchers then assessed links between periodontitis and mortality in people with chronic kidney disease and compared them with the link between mortality and other risk factors in people with chronic kidney disease, such as diabetes.
After adjusting for the effect of other potential influencing factors, the team found that over 10 years, the rate of death due to any cause among survey participants with chronic kidney disease without periodontitis was 32%, while with periodontitis it was 41%.
Prof. Chapple explains that many people who have gum disease do not realize they have it. Perhaps they notice a bit of blood in their spit when they brush their teeth. However, if they don’t have this checked out, they could inadvertently be raising disease risk for the rest of the body.
“It may be that the diagnosis of gum disease can provide an opportunity for early detection of other problems, whereby dental professionals could adopt a targeted, risk-based approach to screening for other chronic diseases.”
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