Prevalence and immunological aspects of the association between periodontal disease and inflammatory bowel disease – narrative literature review

Some resemblances can be observed between inflammatory bowel disease and periodontal disease. Both are defined as chronic inflammatory diseases, and are influenced by the individuals immune and inflammatory response. The microbiome and the immunomodulated inflammatory processes have an important role on these diseases, and both of them have a systemic impact. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate, through a literature review, periodontal disease and inflammatory bowel disease, and assess the prevalence and immunological aspects between them. Materials and methods: A narrative literature review was conducted based on selected articles from the PubMed database published from 1989 to 2019, using the keywords “inflammatory bowel disease” and “periodontal disease”, and the Boolean operator “AND”. Results: After adjusting the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 11 articles were selected for discussion. Conclusion: It can be concluded that there is a higher prevalence of periodontitis in patients who have inflammatory bowel disease. A complex interaction between these diseases is possible, where one may influence the others inflammatory response. However, more studies are necessary to explain this interaction. It is important that dentists and gastroenterologists have the knowledge of the possible relation between inflammatory disease and periodontal disease, so that they can inform their patients about the risk of periodontitis and the importance of oral hygiene.