Association of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D₃ to periodontal measures

Objectives: A previous cross-sectional study showed an association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D₃ and susceptibility to gingival inflammation.  In a subset of a randomized clinical trial involving patients taking varying doses of vitamin D, we examined the association of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D₃ to clinical periodontal measures and the association of vitamin D supplementation with the change in clinical periodontal measures over time.

Methods: Clinical measures for bleeding on probing, probing depth, recession, clinical attachment loss, and plaque index were obtained over time in a subset of 10 men participating in a clinical trial to evaluate varying doses of vitamin D (1000,5000,10000 IU) on weight loss. Using marginal regression modeling, the association of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D₃ to these periodontal clinical measures were evaluated as well as the association between the change in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D₃ and change in these clinical measures over time while adjusting for age, smoking status, and BMI.

Results: Periodontal measures in patients in the top quartile of 25-hydroxyvitamin D₃ serum levels tended to have better clinical periodontal measures than patients with lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D₃ serum levels. The attached table shows adjusted means and 95% CIs for these clinical measures according to quartile of 25-hydroxyvitamin D₃ serum level. In contrast, no association was detected between vitamin D dose and change in these periodontal measures, which may be related to the small number of patients or to the short length of the study (5 months).

Conclusion: Results of this study provide further evidence of an association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D₃ serum levels and periodontal measures, particularly measures of inflammation, such as bleeding on probing.  However, the results of this study failed to provide any evidence for vitamin D to reduce gingival inflammation in this short longitudinal study.