Fischer and co-investigators found a significantly higher incidence of generalized chronic periodontitis among predialysis patients compared with CAPD and hemodialysis patients, and healthy individuals, at 56.9 percent versus 15.0 percent, 25.0 percent, and 26.9 percent, respectively.
They also report significantly higher rates of severe chronic periodontitis in predialysis and hemodialysis patients, compared with CAPD patients and healthy participants, at 62.7 percent and 55.0 percent versus 32.5 percent and 28.0 percent.
Adjustment for gender and race had no significant effect on these results, Fischer et al note in the Journal of Periodontal Research. However, current smoking significantly increased the higher frequency of generalized chronic periodontitis in the predialysis group compared with not smoking.
This association with smoking could have been influenced by the fact that current smoking was about three times more common among the CKD patients than the healthy individuals, observe the authors.
Finally, the researchers report that predialysis and hemodialysis patients had a significantly higher percentage of oral sites with clinical attachment loss of more than 6 mm, indicating "worse periodontal conditions" overall.
To provide insight into possible causes of their findings, the research team suggests "an appropriate case-control study should be designed to answer the question of whether CKD is associated with periodontitis."
