Association of Tooth Scaling with Acute Myocardial Infarction and Analysis of the Corresponding Medical Expenditure: A Nationwide Population-Based Study.

Yi-Wei Kao,Huei-Chen Chiang,Mingchih Chen,Szu-Yuan Wu,Ben-Chang Shia

doi:10.3390/ijerph18147613

Abstract

Accumulating evidence has shown a significant correlation between periodontal diseases and systemic diseases. In this study, we investigated the association between the frequency of tooth scaling and acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Here, a group of 7164 participants who underwent tooth scaling was compared with another group of 7164 participants without tooth scaling through propensity score matching to assess AMI risk by Cox’s proportional hazard regression. The results show that the hazard ratio of AMI from the tooth scaling group was 0.543 (0.441, 0.670) and the average expenses of AMI in the follow up period was USD 265.76, while the average expenses of AMI in follow up period for control group was USD 292.47. The tooth scaling group was further divided into two subgroups, namely A and B, to check the influence of tooth scaling frequency on AMI risk. We observed that (1) the incidence rate of AMI in the group without any tooth scaling was 3.5%, which is significantly higher than the incidence of 1.9% in the group with tooth scaling; (2) the tooth scaling group had lower total medical expenditures than those of the other group because of the high medical expenditure associated with AMI; and (3) participants who underwent tooth scaling had a lower AMI risk than those who never underwent tooth scaling had. Therefore, the results of this study demonstrate the importance of preventive medicine.

Highlights

The current findings suggest that tooth scaling reduces acute myocardial infarction (AMI) risk
Promoting the importance of oral health and encouraging the habit of regular tooth scaling among the public might help to reduce the risk of AMI and related expenditure and economic burden on the National Health Insurance (NHI) administration
Numerous nations, including USA and Japan, have emphasized the importance of oral health and adopted different measures to control the prevalence of periodontal disease and the risk of coronary heart disease, aneurysms, and other health problems

Summary

Introduction

Dental health affects the overall health and the quality of life of individuals. Accumulating evidence has shown that there is a significant relationship between periodontal diseases and systemic diseases [1]. Poor oral hygiene increases the risk of various diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, lung disease, diabetes mellitus, and some cancers. Several studies have reported that cavities, periodontal diseases, and oral cancer add to the inflammatory burden of the human body. According to the World Health Organization, noninfectious chronic diseases could soon become the main cause of disability and death among populations in rapidly aging countries. The most common oral health conditions are missing teeth, dental decay, Int. J.

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