Elsevier

Journal of Endodontics

Volume 38, Issue 3, March 2012, Pages 297-300
Journal of Endodontics

Clinical Research
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and the Prevalence of Apical Periodontitis and Endodontic Treatment in an Adult Brazilian Population

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joen.2011.11.001Get rights and content

Abstract

Introduction

This cross-sectional study evaluated the prevalence of apical periodontitis (AP) and endodontic treatment in type 2 diabetic individuals as compared with nondiabetics from an adult Brazilian population.

Methods

Full-mouth radiographs from 30 type 2 diabetic and 60 age- and sex-matched nondiabetic individuals were examined, and the presence of AP lesions in untreated and root canal-treated teeth was recorded. The number of teeth and the prevalence of root canal treatment were also evaluated.

Results

AP was significantly more present in teeth from diabetic individuals (98/652, 15%) than in nondiabetic controls (162/1,368, 12%) (P = .05). A separate analysis of untreated and treated teeth revealed that significance was mostly because of the prevalence of AP in untreated teeth, which was 10% in diabetics and 7% in nondiabetics (P = .03). No significant difference between diabetics and nondiabetics was observed for the other parameters under study, including the prevalence of AP in root canal–treated teeth, the number of teeth in the oral cavity, the number of treated teeth per individual, the number of individuals with at least 1 AP lesion or 1 root canal treatment, and the number of teeth with AP per individual (P > .05).

Conclusions

AP was significantly more prevalent in untreated teeth from type 2 diabetics. This suggests that diabetes may serve as a disease modifier of AP in the sense that individuals with diabetes can be more prone to develop primary disease. However, findings do not confirm that diabetes may influence the response to root canal treatment because treated teeth had no increased prevalence of AP when compared with controls.

Section snippets

Materials and Methods

Individuals seeking routine dental care and attending the School of Dentistry of the Estácio de Sá University for the first time were selected to take part in this study. The study group was composed of 30 type 2 diabetic individuals (18 women and 12 men), with ages ranging from 40 to 69 years (mean, 58.2 ± 8.2 years). Controls were age and sex matched with diabetics so that there were 2 nondiabetic individuals for each diabetic patient. Ages for the 60 control individuals ranged from 41 to 70

Number of Teeth and Prevalence of Root Canal Treatment

The average number of teeth per individual in the diabetic group was 21.7, whereas in the control group it was 22.8 (Table 1). This difference was not statistically significant (P > .05). Of the diabetics, 77% displayed 1 or more teeth with root canal treatment, with an average of 2.8 root canal–treated teeth per patient. Of the nondiabetic subjects, 87% presented endodontic treatment in at least 1 tooth, with an average of 3.4 treated teeth per individual. No significant differences were

Discussion

Because there are so far few studies in the literature reporting on diabetes as a disease modifier in endodontics, this cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of AP and endodontic treatment in type 2 diabetic individuals. A cross-sectional design was used because of the advantage of allowing the inclusion of a large number of individuals. Even so, the number of diabetic individuals gathered was not so large but was comparable with previous studies on this same issue 13

Acknowledgments

The authors deny any conflicts of interest related to this study.

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    Supported by grants from Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazilian Governmental Institutions.

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