Care of gums helps with diabetes control

By David Douglas

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Standard treatment for
moderately inflamed gums around the teeth — periodontitis —
can help people with diabetes keep their blood sugar levels
under control, Spanish and Portuguese researchers report.

Diabetic patients have a higher risk of developing
periodontal disease than do non-diabetics, “so control of diet,
exercise and inflammation in periodontitis is essential,” Dr.
Antonio Bascones told Reuters Health.

Bascones, at Complutense University, Madrid and colleagues
note in the Journal of Periodontology that since the 1960s
there have been studies suggesting that periodontal disease
worsens blood sugar control in diabetics.

To investigate further, the researchers studied ten
patients with type 2 diabetes and ten people without diabetes.
All had a diagnosis of moderate generalized chronic
periodontitis.

The patients underwent conventional periodontal root
scaling and root planing, and after a few months all showed
significant improvement gum bleeding, amount of plaque on
teeth, the degree of looseness of teeth.

Furthermore, the team found, the group with diabetes had a
significant improvement in glucose control, as indicated by a
drop from 7.2 to 5.7 in glycosylate hemoglobin levels, commonly
called the A1c measurement.

The investigators call for further studies but suggest that
“there is a two-way relationship between diabetes mellitus and
periodontitis, with the former producing a greater severity of
periodontal disease and the latter compromising blood glucose
control.”

The findings, Bascones added, are “in a small sample of
patients but it is the first step in the fight against this
disease.”

SOURCE: Journal of Periodontology, April 2006.