Examination of Relationship between Dental Health and Heart Disease by the Panorama Index

Abstract

【Purpose】Recently, oral health has been reported to be related to ischemic heart disease, infective endocarditis, preterm low birth weight and pneumonia. We examined the relationship between oral health and heart disease by the panorama index (P.I.). 【Materials and methods】We performed oral examination and orthopantomography in 204 persons who consulted the dental department of Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine between January 2003 and December 2007. We defined the experimental group as patients with a history of heart disease and the control group as patients without any disease. P.I. is the sum of CPI records and signs of dental infection, which is the number of caries, periapical radiolucencies, pericoronitis and root remnants. Comparisons between groups were made using the Mann-Whitney U-test. Differences were considered significant at p<0.05. 【Results】The experimental group consisted of 88 patients with an average age of 64.7±9.2 years old, whereas the control group consisted of 116 persons with an average age of 56.0±10.2 years old. The average P.I. of the experimental group was 6.8±0.2 and that of the control group was 6.0±0.2. Regarding P.I., the experimental group showed a higher index than the control group at all ages. Especially, the index was higher for patients in their 50's. 【Conclusion】We concluded that the P.I. might be useful for evaluating the risk of contracting heart disease.