Periodontal disease may increase a person’s risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, or COPD, say oral biologists in the January issue of the Journal of Periodontology.
Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo analyzed the periodontal and respiratory health of 13,792 subjects from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They found that subjects who had a history of COPD had more periodontal attachment loss than did subjects who did not have such a history. Specifically, they found that subjects with a mean attachment loss of 3 millimeters were at a higher risk of developing COPD than were subjects who had mean attachment loss of less than 3 mm.
Researchers also noted that lung function appeared to diminish with increasing periodontal attachment loss.
They cautioned that their findings merely suggest an association between periodontal disease and COPD.
Frank Scannapieco, D.M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of oral biology at UB and lead researcher of the study, said that the research does not conclude that periodontal disease causes COPD. "We know that the onset and progression of COPD is dependent on smoking, and that repeated bacterial infections can worsen the lung disease."
"It is possible," he continued, "that periodontal bacteria could travel to the lungs through saliva or normal breathing and in some way promote lung infection. Another possibility is that the inflammation caused by periodontal disease may contribute to inflammation of the lining of the lung airway, which limits the amount of air that passes to and from the lungs."
