ASSOCIATION BETWEEN ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS AND CHRONIC PERIODONTITIS IN DUHOK: A CASE-CONTROL STUDY

Background and objectives: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and periodontal disease (PD) are characterized by dysregulation of the host inflammatory response, resulting in soft and hard connective tissue destruction. AS has been related toother inflammatory diseases, however, there is a paucity of data on whether AS is associated with inflammatory PD. The aim of this study to investigate the possible association between AS and chronic periodontitis.
Methods: The case-control study included 90 individuals,45 documented patients with AS and had been diagnosed by rheumatologists in the specialized center of rheumatic disease and medical rehabilitation and referred to the department of periodontics, College of Dentistry, University of Duhok and another 45 clinically healthy individuals with PD as a control group. Among studied individuals, 65 were males and 25 were female. A detailed periodontal examination was performed in all subjects, included probing pocket depth, epithelial insertion level (clinical attachment loss) and plaque index and a form of questionnaires was filled from the patients included gender, age, duration of AS disease, medication, risk factors of PD like smoking and level of education.
Results : No significant differences were found in two studied groups based on age groups, level of education, smoking, duration of disease and the type of used drugs, but a significant difference was found between two groups based on gender in which AS was more common among males than females.
Conclusions: These results suggest that an association may exist between AS and periodontal disease. Such an association would be important since knowledge of an effect of periodontal treatment on AS disease activity or vice versa would lead to the need for close collaboration between rheumatologists and dentists when treating these diseases