Association between asthma and chronic periodontitis -A Case–Control Study in Shimla-Himachal Pradesh

Introduction: The colonization of respiratory pathogens appears to be a risk factor for lung infection in high-risk individuals. Evidences dictate a bidirectional relationship between periodontitis and asthma. Aim: The aim of this study is to explore this potential association between asthma and periodontal disease. Materials and Methods: In a case–control study the individuals were selected from patients attending asthma clinic in a hospital. Individuals consist of fifty asthmatics and fifty nonasthmatic healthy controls evaluated for plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), papillary bleeding index (PBI), calculus index (CI), and clinical attachment level (CAL). The data were analyzed by SPSS version 16. Results: Mean PI scores was 0.649 ± 0.316 for control group in comparison to 1.168 ± 0.46 for asthmatic group. Statistically significant difference among two groups was obtained on a comparison of GI score (P = 0.0231) CI scores (0.0461) for control group. CAL was 3.817 ± 0.722 mm and 4.964 ± 0.871 mm in control group and case group, respectively. The difference of CAL for two groups was statistically highly significant (P = 0.004). Comparison of PBI of test group and control group showed significant difference Comparison of all the parameters for two subgroups (mild asthmatics and moderate-to-severe asthmatics), i.e. PI, CI, GI, and PBI was statistically significant with P value for respective scores as 0.0281, 0.04, 0.027, and 0.0162. CAL measurement for both groups was highly significant (P = 0.001). Conclusion: The present study reveals an association between the occurrence of chronic periodontitis and asthma. Both periodontal and respiratory diseases have an inflammatory nature. Parameters measured using different indices have revealed higher scores for the asthmatics than nonasthmatics