Dan Piperea-Sianu, Adela Maria Ceau, Alexandru G. Croitoru, Alice Piperea-Sianu, Diana E. Radulescu, Daniela Badita, Sorin Stefan Arama and Carina Mihai

ABSTRACT

Introduction. The relationship between periodontal disease (PD) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is currently only partially known, both being chronic multifactorial diseases that may share common pathogenic mechanisms and etiological factors. In a previous meta-analysis we concluded that patients with RA are more commonly affected by PD and develop more severe forms of the disease, compared to the general population.
Objectives. The current study aimed to assess the degree of periodontal damage and oral hygiene on a group of patients diagnosed with RA.
Methods. The study was conducted on a group of 30 patients, 6 sextants being assessed in each patient (180 potentially evaluable sextants). Establishing the degree of periodontal damage and oral hygiene was achieved by determining the Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs (CPITN) and Oral Hygiene Index (IHB, also known as OHI).
Results. The mean CPITN score/sextant was 1.92. After clinical examination we found 10 edentulous sextants that could not be evaluated. As a result of the distribution of the scores on all the 170 evaluable sextants, we obtained: CPITN 0 – 11.1%, CPITN 1 – 23.6%, CPITN 2 – 32.4%, CPITN 3 – 27.6%, CPITN 4 – 5.3%. After analyzing the oral hygiene index the mean value we found was 16. Distribution of IHB intervals was: IHB 0-12 (40%), IHB 13-24 (53.3%), IHB 25-36 (6.6%).
Discussion and conclusions. Comparing our results to data from the literature, in our group of patients with RA the only CPITN index criteria significantly increased, compared to the healthy population, were gingival bleeding on probing and the number of periodontal pockets with 4-5.5 mm depth.

Keywords: periodontal disease, rheumatoid arthritis, CPITN, IHB

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