Oral health and inflammation in patients with end-stage renal failure.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: End-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients have an increased risk of atherosclerotic complications. In both hemodialysis (HD) patients and the general population, it has become evident that inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic complications. Oral and dental problems in ESRD patients could be an important source of inflammation, thus treatment of these problems is important to protect these patients from potential infections. The decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) index is an indicator of oral and dental health status. Our aim was to analyze and compare salivary flow rate (SFR), salivary pH (SpH), salivary buffering capacity (SBC), and DMFT index and plaque index (PI) values in PD patients to HD patients and healthy controls (C) and establish the relationship between these parameters and C-reactive protein (CRP). METHODS: 76 PD patients, 100 HD patients, and 111 Cs were included in the study. SFR (milliliters/minute) was measured in stimulated whole saliva, SpH was measured using the Merck indicator, and SBC was measured according to the method of Ericsson: 1 mL whole saliva was added to 3 mL 0.005 N HCl and a stream of air was passed through this mixture for 20 minutes. Finally, DMFT index and PI values were calculated. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences were found in age or gender distribution among PD, HD, and C groups. There was also no significant difference in time on dialysis between PD and HD groups. SFR was significantly lower in the PD and HD groups than in the C group (1.30 +/- 0.83 and 0.70 +/- 0.32 vs 1.64 +/- 0.45 mL/min) and lower in the HD than in the PD group (p < 0.001). SpH (8.35 +/- 0.43 and 8.12 +/- 0.74 vs 7.16 +/- 0.76) and SBC (7.39 +/- 0.47 and 6.82 +/- 0.70 vs 5.08 +/- 0.73) were significantly higher in the PD and HD groups than in the C group and higher in the PD than in the HD group (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001 respectively). The numbers of filled teeth were significantly higher in the PD than in the HD and C groups (p < 0.001). DMFT index was significantly higher in the PD than in the HD group (p < 0.001). Finally, PI values were significantly higher in the PD and HD groups than in the C group (p < 0.001) and higher in the HD than in the PD group, although this was not statistically significant. In the present study, we also found higher CRP values in HD than in PD patients and a positive correlation between CRP and PI values in PD patients. CONCLUSIONS: PD patients have higher SFR, SpH, and SBC values than HD patients; however, higher DMFT index and higher numbers of filled teeth were observed in PD patients. Compared to healthy controls, patients on dialysis had worse dental and periodontal findings, which might have a role in microinflammation in this group of patients.