The Prevalence and Correlation of Carotid Artery Calcifications and Dental Pulp Stones in a Saudi Arabian Population

Abstract

Background: This study sought to determine the prevalence of carotid artery calcifications (CACs) and pulp stones detected on panoramic radiographs (PRs) and ascertain their correlation. Methods: A total of 2013 digital PRs were retrospectively retrieved and thoroughly examined to determine the prevalence of CACs and pulp stones, their correlation with patient age and gender, and the relationship between the presence of pulps stones and radiographically detectable CACs. Results: The prevalence of CACs on PRs was 2.0%; the prevalence of pulp stones was 4.6%. There was no statistical relationship between pulp stones and CACs (p = 0.714). Older patients exhibited a significantly higher prevalence of CACs than younger patients (p < 0.001); pulp stones were statistically more prevalent in younger patients than older patients (p = 0.001). There were no significant differences between male and females in terms of the prevalence of either CACs or pulp stones (p = 0.087 and p = 0.278, respectively). Conclusions: Dentists should be trained to detect CACs on PRs belonging to patients older than 40 to exclude the presence of CACs. Moreover, pulp stones do not function as a diagnostic marker for CACs.

Sialometric and Sialochemical Analysis in Individuals With Pulp Stones

“…What is known is that there are similarities in the calcification processes (Carson, 1998;Kohri et al, 2012;Foster et al, 2018), with an exacerbation of the inflammatory process (Gopal et al, 2016). Another highlight is that the incidence of pulp stones is higher in patients with diabetes and kidney disease (Nakajima et al, 2013), including urolithiasis (Movahhedian et al, 2018;Gabardo et al, 2019), and coronary artery disease (Alsweed et al, 2019). In addition, there are evidence in the literature that female individuals are more affected (Ravanshad et al, 2015;Jannati et al, 2019), but other authors have not confirmed this information (Hsieh et al, 2018;Babu et al, 2020).…”

“…To summarize, high prevalence of pulp stones has been reported globally (Jannati et al, 2019) and may be associated with other systemic conditions (Nakajima et al, 2013;Alsweed et al, 2019;Gabardo et al, 2019). Additionally, sialometric and sialochemical evaluations are relevant to research in this field, to understand the etiology of diseases and discover potential salivary biomarkers.…”

“…Interestingly, the incidence of pulp stones is higher in patients with diabetes and kidney disease (Nakajima et al, 2013), including urolithiasis (Movahhedian et al, 2018;Gabardo et al, 2019), and coronary artery disease (Alsweed et al, 2019), possibly due to the inflammatory process common to them (Gopal et al, 2016). The association between them and certain systemic conditions is also supported by the fact that the mechanism of mineralization of pulp stones is similar to calcifications in other organs in the body (Carson, 1998).…”

The Relationship between Coronary Atherosclerosis and Dental Pulp Calcification

“…Mineral deposits can be formed in ectopic areas or dystrophic lesions under various conditions in the body [1], this mineral deposition can make changes with the appearance of a lesion or plaque and be observed radiographically [1].…”

Assessing the Prevalence and Association of Pulp Stones with Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes Mellitus in the Saudi Arabian Population—A CBCT Based Study

“…Few authors have reported a significant association between renal calculi and PS [ 9 ]. Moreover, researchers believe that PS detection can be a diagnostic marker of systemic disease [ 10 , 11 ]. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major concern of morbidity and mortality in the modern era.…”