Higher sugar intake is associated with periodontal disease in adolescents

Objectives Analyze the association between higher added sugar exposure and periodontal disease in adolescents (18–19 years old). Materials and methods This was a cross-sectional study nested to RPS Cohorts Consortium, São Luís, Brazil ( n = 2515). The exposure was percentage of daily calories from added sugar (≥ 10%), estimated from a quantitative food frequency. The outcome was periodontal disease estimated by the number of teeth affected by bleeding on probing, periodontal probing depth ≥ 4 mm, and clinical attachment level ≥ 4 mm at the same site. A theoretical model was depicted in a directed acyclic graph to identify the minimal sufficient adjustment set: household income, adolescent’s educational level, sex, alcohol use, and smoking. Periodontal disease was categorized into < 2 teeth affected, 2 to 3 teeth affected, and ≥ 4 teeth affected to estimate prevalence ratios (PR) by multinomial logistic regression. To test for consistency, means ratio (MR) were estimated using zero-inflated Poisson. Results High sugar intake was associated with ≥ 4 teeth affected by periodontal disease (PR = 1.42; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.03–1.94; p = 0.030); consistency Poisson analysis reinforced these results (MR = 1.15; 95% CI = 1.03–1.29; p = 0.011). Conclusion High level of added sugar intake was associated with greater extent of periodontal disease in adolescents. Clinical relevance High sugar intake was associated with periodontal disease in adolescents, supporting the integrated hypothesis of dental caries and periodontal disease and giving impetus to future clinical investigation on the effect of restriction of added sugar consumption in periodontal parameters, which potentially may change traditional treatment protocols of periodontal disease.