Relationship between systemic osteoporosis and periodontal disease

Osteoporosis, which is a metabolic bone disorder, presents a major public health problem, particularly for postmenopausal women. When defining the relationship between osteoporosis and periodontitis several issues should be considered: - most published studies support a positive association between these common diseases; - many studies cross-sectional in nature, include relatively small sample sizes and have inadequate control of potential confounding factors; - varying methods to assess both osteoporosis and periodontitis are used; - varying definitions of both osteoporosis and periodontal disease when presenting the outcomes of interest were used. Not all studies rely on some measures of bone density. Many studies rely on clinical observations of events such as bone fracture; - the demographic makeup of the population under study (age, gender, race) and control of potential confounding variables (smoking, oral hygiene status) differs markedly across studies. As a result, interferences on the association between osteoporosis and periodontal disease require careful considerations. The findings indicate that osteoporosis may produce a risk for alveolar bone loss in cases of periodontitis. Keywords: alveolar bone loss, tooth loss, osteoporosis, periodontitis, bone mineral content