Worse Caries Experience Does Not Lead to Worse Overall Health

Abstract

Objective:To analyze caries experience depending on periodontitis affection concomitant or not with cardiovascular risks or mental health issues with the hypothesis that worse accumulated caries experience is not necessarily the result of the presence of concomitant overall health issues. Material and Methods: All subjects of this cross-sectional study were participants of the Dental Registry and DNA Repository project. Variables age, ethnicity, sex, caries experience, periodontitis and mental disease statuses and blood pressure assessment, dental clinical data (DMFT, DMFS and periodontitis) were evaluated and collected from the clinical records. We used chi-square, Fisher's exact, or Student's t-tests to determine differences in frequencies of sex, age, ethnicity, and dental clinical data depending on caries experience, periodontitis, mental health status, and cardiovascular risks. The established alpha was 5%. Results: Of the total 1,437 subjects included in this study, 407 were individuals with high blood pressure and 1,030 were individuals without high blood pressure. Also, 558 were individuals with mental disease and 879 were individuals without mental disease. High blood pressure patients were mostly men (47.17%) and women were the majority when analyzing patients with mental illness (60.04%). Most of the patients in the different groups were white, with a mean age ranging from 15.4 to 88 years. Conclusion: We concluded that caries experience concomitant or not with periodontitis affection does not associate with high blood pressure and mental disease.