Periodontitis and Diabetes: Complication or Predictor.

ABSTRACT

Recent studies indicate that periodontal health influences systemic health and that this has also been considered as a bidirectional relationship for several systemic conditions. This is particularly evident for the inter-relationship between periodontal disease and diabetes mellitus (DM). This relationship between the health of periodontium and DM provides an example of a viz. association. Whereby, there is always possibility that a systemic disease predisposes the individual to oral infections, and, once the oral infection is established, it exacerbates the systemic disease through its pathogenesis and its disease cycle incorporating other organs as oral cavity is also a part of a human body. There are also associations between periodontal disease and systemic conditions such as cardiovascular problems, osteoporosis, obesity, and pancreatic disease. Hence, emphasis should now be placed on treating chronic periodontal diseases as a means of deteriorating systemic diseases. Now-a-day periodontitis has been considered as the sixth complication of DM.