Periodontitis is a major public health problem, where an inflammation in the gums slowly breaks down the tissue around the teeth. For the worst affected, it ends with the teeth falling out.
The disease can be detected as early as 35 years of age. But it's a disease that sneaks up on you. Often, the patients who come to us are in their 50s, says Pernilla Lundberg, senior dentist and professor at Umeå University.
By then, it may already be too late.
Unfortunately, it's the case that those who have had periodontitis tooth loss also more often get a disease called peri-implantitis, which is inflammation around the implant fixture, she continues.
"Not succeeded"
The proportion of periodontitis sufferers has remained unchanged since the 1970s.
Here, we have not succeeded in dentistry. We don't find them in time. And we have no additional treatment. We can only clean as we do for everyone, she says.
She has led a study where they collected, among other things, blood samples from 1,000 patients within the Public Dental Service in Västerbotten and Gävleborg between 2007 and 2019. It turned out that the patients had significantly lower levels of two proteins (EGF and OLE-1) in the blood. The first is crucial for wound healing, the second has links to heart and cardiovascular diseases.
The researchers do not know if it is periodontitis that causes the low levels, or vice versa.
It could be that when individuals with low EGF levels get an inflammation and tissue breakdown in the teeth, it doesn't heal because they have lower levels, says Lundberg.
Investigating genes
The current study can be the starting point for a long series of different research projects. One could imagine that via blood tests, periodontitis or those at risk of getting it could be detected earlier, and that those affected could be treated earlier, perhaps by applying some medication to the gums.
But first, the researchers will study whether there is a genetic link or if other proteins in the blood stand out.
There is a connection between tooth loss, heart and cardiovascular diseases, and rheumatism. But how it all hangs together is unknown. Maybe there are clues in the proteins in the blood.
We can detect a common denominator here with a link to other inflammatory diseases, says Pernilla Lundberg.
The study PerioGene North is led from Umeå University and is based on data from 1,000 patients in Västerbotten and Gävleborg collected between 2007 and 2019.
The goal is to find out why some people get the tooth loss disease periodontitis, which affects one in ten Swedes, and what in the inflammatory process causes the supporting tissue around the tooth to break down.
The study is published in the scientific journal Journal of Dental Research.
