Role of Periodontist in Screening Diabetes- A Correlation of Clinical and Biochemical Parameters

ABSTRACT

The increased prevalence and severity of periodontitis seen in patients with diabetes, especially those with poor metabolic control, has led to the designation of periodontal disease as the “sixth complication of diabetes” and successful periodontal therapy in diabetic patients entails the stabilization of blood glucose to a normal range. Hence, present study evaluates whether the noninvasive method of testing gingival blood glucose, is a reliable tool for screening diabetes in chronic periodontitis patients. Methods: The study sample comprised of 75 patients with probing pocket depth of > 4mm and clinical attachment loss of >3mm. Under aseptic measures and proper isolation, after gently probing the gingival sulcus the blood was drawn onto the glucometer strip and the readings were recorded. At the same visit blood was also collected from the index finger onto the glucometer strip. The statistical methods applied were Student's t-test (unpaired) to compare mean values between the two groups and Pearson's correlation for Means and Standard Deviation of the different parameters were calculated. Results: There is a positive correlation between GCBG and CFBG with all the clinical parameters. Fasting blood glucose level is negatively associated with age, plaque index and clinical attachment level (r=0.083, r=0.22 and p=0.042, respectively) whereas Post prandial blood glucose level is negatively associated with age, plaque index and probing pocket depth (r=0.117, r=0.099 and r=0.06, respectively). CFBG is slightly positively correlated with age, plaque index and clinical attachment whereas GCBG is strongly associated with probing pocket depth. Conclusion: The gingival crevicular blood glucose levels also found a positive correlation with the fasting blood glucose levels and post prandial blood glucose levels, suggesting the use of gingival crevicular blood as a screening marker for diabetes. Also a correlation was found between the gingival crevicular blood glucose levels and the clinical parameters suggesting that the treatment of periodontal disease can be considered as an important factor, which can help in improvement of the blood glucose levels in periodontitis subjects.