Association between periodontal disease, tooth loss and liver diseases risk

Aim The purpose of this study is to assess the associations between periodontal disease, tooth loss and liver diseases. Materials and methods PubMed and Embase databases were utilized to search eligible studies. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used as effect size to assess the associations between periodontal disease, tooth loss and liver diseases risk. Results Our results indicated positive associations between periodontal disease and non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) (OR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.06–1.33), liver cirrhosis (OR = 2.28, 95% CI = 1.50–3.48) and elevated transaminase level risk (OR = 1.08, 95% CI = 1.02–1.15). Moreover, tooth loss could increase NAFLD (OR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.12– 1.56) and liver cancer risk (OR = 1.34, 95% CI = 1.04–1.74), and every five increment in tooth loss was associated with 5% increased liver cancer risk (OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 1.01 – 1.10) with a linear relationship. In addition, tooth loss had a positive tendency towards liver cirrhosis risk (OR = 2.03, 95% CI = 0.85–4.85) although there was no statistical significance. Conclusion Periodontal disease and tooth loss are positively associated with liver diseases including NAFLD, elevated transaminase level, liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.