OSTEOPOROSIS - A RISK FACTOR IN PERIODONTAL-DISEASE

OSTEOPOROSIS IS SUSPECTED AS A RISK FACTOR in periodontal disease, but previous studies have failed to establish a relationship. Possible ex planations for this could be lack of precise methods for assessment of osteoporosis in the jaws and confounding of the result by other facto rs such as age, gender, or smoking. In the present study 12 female pat ients with osteoporotic fractures (Group O) and 14 normal women (Group N) were examined clinically for plaque (VPI), gingival bleeding (GBI) , and loss of attachment on the 6 Ramfjord index teeth. Bone mineral c ontent (BMC) of the mandible and forearm was determined by dual photon scanning. Results were presented as arithmetic means +/- standard err or, and differences between groups were tested by 2-sample t-test. The two groups were comparable with respect to age (O: 68.3 +/- 1.8 years , N: 68.1 +/- 1.5 years), menopausal age (O: 47.5 +/- 1.8 years, N: 47 .2 +/- 1.3 years), and smoking habits (O: 4 smokers, N: 3 smokers). Th e osteoporotic women had significantly lower BMC values than controls in the mandible (O: 0.63 +/- 0.04 in U/cm(2); N: 0.78 +/- 0.02 in U/cm (2), P <0.01) and forearm (O: 1.05 +/- 0.05 in U/cm; N: 1.28 +/-:0.05 in U/cm, P <0.01). No significant differences were found with respect to plaque (O: 46.67 +/- 10.00%, N: 36.67 +/- 6.67%) and gingival bleed ing (O: 46.67 +/- 11.67%, N: 43.33 +/- 10.00%), whereas significantly greater loss of attachment was seen in osteoporotic women (O: 3.65 +/- 0.18 mm, N: 2.86 +/- 0.19 mm, P <0.01). These results suggest that se vere osteoporosis which significantly reduces the bone mineral content of the jaws may be associated with less favorable attachment level in case of periodontal disease.