HIV status does not worsen oral health outcomes

Last January 31st, Journal of Clinical Periodontology just made available the report titled “A Retrospective Analysis of Dental Implant Survival in HIV Patients,” which concluded that “implants placed in HIV‐positive patients had similar survival rates as HIV‐negative patients.” These data support our hypothesis that infection by HIV does not lead to worse oral health outcomes, including worse periodontitis. We looked 6,092 individuals and selected all HIV‐positive subjects (N = 73) and matched them by age, sex, ethnicity, and smoking habits with 261 HIV‐negative control subjects. Based on these 334 total individuals, several dental conditions, including the need for root canal treatment, gingivitis, periodontitis, hairy leukoplakia, and dental caries were compared between the two groups. Overall, there was no difference in dental disease between the HIV‐positive and HIV‐negative groups. In our data, it was found that the prevalence of periodontitis in HIV‐positive patients was 16.4% and in HIV‐negative patients 19.2%.