Periodontitis and dental scaling associated with pyogenic liver abscess: A population-based case-control study

Background and ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between periodontitis, dental scaling (DS) and pyogenic liver abscesses (PLAs). Material and MethodsA nationwide population-based case-control study was applied using data from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. We identified and enrolled 691 PLA patients, who were individually matched by age and sex to 2764 controls. ResultsConditional logistic regression was applied to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) in patients with exposure to periodontitis and DS before PLA. After adjusting for other confounding factors, periodontitis remained a risk factor for PLA among patients aged 20-40years, with an aOR of 2.31 (95% confidence interval [CI]=1.37-3.90, P=.0018). In addition, the average aOR for PLA was significantly lower among patients with one DS (aOR=0.76, 95% CI=0.59-0.96) and more than one DS (aOR=0.61, 95% CI=0.39-0.95) within 1year before the index date. ConclusionAccording to these results, we concluded that adult patients with periodontitis aged <50years old are more at risk for PLA than controls, particularly when they have no DS. Moreover, from 20 years of age, non-periodontal patients subjected to at least 2 DS per year are less at risk for PLA than controls.