Periodontal disease and associated factors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Introduction: Periodontitis (PD) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are chronic inflammatory diseases that share complex multi-factorial pathologic processes, including genetics, environmental and inflammatory factors. This study aims to evaluate the periodontal status and its association with sociodemographic and clinical factors in patients with RA.Methods: This study included 51 patients with RA; the mean age was 49.75±9.79 years old and 10.59±6.37 years of disease duration. Sociodemographic data and the rheumatologic assessment included detailed profiling of the disease and serol-ogy were noted. A full mouth periodontal examination, including the Gingival index, Plaque index, Pocket probing depth and clinical attachment level, was carried out by a periodontist. The periodontal status was classified according to the Cen-ters for Disease Control-American Academy of Periodontology clinical case definitions.Results: Forty-five patients (88.2%) were female. 37.3% of patients had DAS28>3.2. All patients had PD, in mild (54.9%) to moderate (45.1%) severity. Aging, impaired oral hygiene, smoking, secondary Sjögren’s syndrome and high disease activity were associated with moderate PD.Discussion and Conclusion: This study results identified a serious need to pay particular attention to oral health in patients with RA and refer these patients for periodontal evaluation and treatment. Future studies are needed to better investigate whether if efforts to prevent periodontal disease may also help prevent RA.