Hormone-related events and periodontitis in women

Aim: While the short-term effects of hormonal events on gingival inflammation have been well described, long-term effects on the periodontium have received less attention. The aim of this cross-sectional population-based study was to evaluate the association between hormone-related events and periodontitis in a representative sample of the postmenopausal women of South Korea. Materials and Methods: A total of 10,273 postmenopausal women representative of 6.1 million of Koreans were examined. Periodontitis and severe periodontitis were defined according to the Community Periodontal Index (CPI ≧ 3 and CPI = 4, respectively). Univariate and multivariate regression analyses using 3 different models were applied controlling for age, smoking, marital status, educational level, income, BMI, hypertension, stress and frequency of toothbrushing. Results: Severe periodontitis was directly associated with a longer reproductive life (p-trend =.027) and with a longer duration of breastfeeding (48–72 vs. 1–17 months: OR = 1.49; 95% CI: 1.01–2.21). Conversely, early menopausal age (<46 vs. 49–50 years: OR = 0.74; 95% CI: 0.56–0.97), history of artificial menopause (OR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.53–0.97), having had more than 6 pregnancies (vs. 4: OR = 0.73; 95% CI: 0.55–0.97), having had more than three abortions (vs. 0: OR = 0.51; 95% CI: 0.28–0.93) and having had the first birth age >26 years (vs. <21 years: OR = 0.71; 95% CI: 0.52–0.97) were inversely associated with severe periodontitis. Conclusions: In this large nationally representative population, severe periodontitis was related to menopausal age, reproductive life length, number of pregnancies/abortions, first birth age and breastfeeding duration, while it was not to oral contraceptive and hormone replacement therapy usages.