Dental Calculus Associates with Cancer in Subjects with Periodontal Disease

Method: The participants were 1676 randomly selected subjects from a population cohort, 30 to 40 years of age at baseline. Their hospital care was followed during 27 years. Clinical oral examinations were made at baseline in 1985. Plaque index, calculus index, gingival index and number of teeth with pockets ≥5 mm were recorded together with a number of background variables. At baseline, 286 subjects were diagnosed having periodontal disease. Up to the follow-up in 2011 cancer diagnoses of the subjects were collected from the Cancer Register File from the National Board of Health and Welfare in Sweden, according to WHO International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). Results were analyzed with unpaired t-tests, X², and multiple logistic regression, when appropriate, using cancer as the end point.

 Result: At end of the study 27 years after baseline, 29 subjects (15 women and 14 men) had developed cancer. Multiple logistic regression analyses identified dental calculus and age as principal independent predictors for cancer: dental calculus with OR 1.38; p=0.037, CI 1.02 – 1.88 and age with OR 2.67, p<0.001, CI 1.99 – 3.58.

Conclusion: Our results implicate that dental calculus associates with development of cancer hence supporting our study hypothesis. Namely, consistently high calculus index might be a proxy for infection burden from the oral cavity; up-regulating systemic reactions that may lead to carcinogenesis.