RESUMO
The purpose of the present paper was to investigate possible relationships between chronic liver diseases and marginal periodontal diseases, using clinical and radiographic methods as well as animal experiments. The periodontal conditions of 100 patients with histologically confirmed chronic hepatopathies were compared with those in a control group of same size. The results of these studies testify unequivocally to unfavourable conditions in the group of hepatopaths. This finding is corroborated and complemented by subsequent animal experiments. The difference in the extent and intensity of the periodontal alterations between a group of Wistar rats with experimentally induced hepatopathies and a control group was statistically significant. These results permit the conclusion that an aetiologic relation between chronic hepatopathies and marginal periodontal diseases may be assumed.