Association between chronic periodontitis and hypertension: a systematic literature review

Relevance of the problem and aim of the work: Association between chronic periodontitis and systemic diseases is being assessed increasingly. In recent years, an association between chronic periodontitis and hypertension started to be assesed. Hypertension is one of the main risk factors in the development of cardiovascular diseases which are the main reason of human mortality. Taking this into account, a systematic review of the literature was conducted to assess the association between chronic inflammatory periodontitis and hypertension. Materials and methods: An electronic literature search from MEDLINE database, accessed through Pubmed, published from January 1st, 2005 to December 31st, 2016 was conducted. Sequential screenings at the title, abstract and full-text levels were performed. Clinical human studies in the English language that had assesed association between chronic periodontitis and hypertension were included (prospective cohort studies, case – control studies, cross-sectional studies and retrospective medical records study). Results: The search resulted in 16 articles meeting the inclusion criteria with 40905 patients overall, who had no systemic disesases. After analysing all articles, significant association has been found between chronic periodontitis and hypertension. Conclusions: A conclussion can be made that there is an association between chronic periodontitis and hypertension but there is a need for further investigation with standardized prospective studies, to assess if this association is causal