Number of Teeth and Medical Expenditure among Patients with Diabetes

Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between medical public health expenditure and number of teeth using the Japanese National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups (NDB).
Methods: We analyzed data on medical, dental, and pharmacy claims generated between April 2015 and March 2016. Outpatients with medical and pharmacy claims related to diabetes mellitus were defined as having diabetes mellitus. Number of teeth was defined as a patient’s number of teeth with diagnosis of periodontitis. Claims involving medical institution visits and medical expenses were identified using the NDB. Descriptive statistics were obtained to examine the association between number of teeth and medical public health expenditure among patients with diabetes mellitus.
Results: The present study included 1,017,758 patients with diabetes mellitus (males: 627,838; females: 389,920). The patients with the fewest teeth had higher medical expenses than patients with more teeth. The largest difference in mean medical expenditure was observed between patients with 5-9 teeth and over 28 teeth (males: 529,396 vs 391,121 yen, females: 596,500 vs 436,054 yen).
Conclusions: Medical public health expenditure for patients with diabetes mellitus differed by their number of teeth. Therefore, maintaining one’s number of teeth might be effective for reducing medical public health expenditure.