23 November 2023

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Vitamin D and periodontal diseases

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Periodontal infection is a common disease that unfortunately also affects young people and is characterized by rapid destruction of periodontal tissue and can lead to early tooth loss. The aggressiveness and onset of the disease depend on many factors, including the patient's susceptibility to infections. It has been shown that there are conditions of vitamin D deficiency associated with a variety of diseases, including oral diseases. The beneficial effects of vitamin D on oral health are not limited to the mineralization of the teeth, but also concern its anti-inflammatory function and its ability to stimulate the production of antimicrobial peptides.

However, there is still conflicting evidence in the literature on the relationship between vitamin D and periodontal disease.

Materials and methods

In a study published in the International Dental Journal, the authors analyzed the association between 25(OH)D3, a precursor of vitamin D, in serum and periodontal disease in a national survey sample in Japan. The authors downloaded the 2009-2018 National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cycle, which included a total of 23,324 samples. Logistic regression of factors influencing perioral disease, including periodontal disease, and subgroup logistic regression were adopted to analyze the relationship between serum vitamin D and perioral disease, using WTMEC2YR as weights for regression analysis. Prediction of perioral disease onset was performed following model-based machine learning. The machine learning algorithms used included boost tree: artificial neural network, AdaBoost, and random forest.

Results

In this study the authors assessed and analyzed vitamin D levels, age, sex, race, education level, body mass index, family income poverty ratio (PIR), smoking , alcohol consumption, diabetes and hypertension in the included samples. Vitamin D has been found to be negatively associated with periodontal disease.

The results of the subgroup analysis showed that the effect of vitamin D 25(OH)D3 on periodontal disease was more pronounced in women younger than 60 years.

Conclusions

From the data of this study, which must be confirmed in other similar works, it can be concluded that vitamin D could be a protective factor for periodontal disease.