Osteoporosis is closely and potentially associated with an elevated risk of periodontitis, says a meta-analysis published in “Oral Diseases”. Investigators carried out this study to explore whether periodontitis and osteoporosis are correlated. Also, the study assessed if osteoporosis is depended on or linked with causes of periodontitis and whether it is a local indicator of bone loss.

Various databases like EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Science Citation Index Expanded, MEDLINE, and CINAHL were explored. Various case-control, cohort, and cross-sectional studies with odds ratio (OR), relative risk (RR), and 95% confidence intervals were evaluated in this pooled analysis of observational studies. To detect heterogeneity sources, the subgroup and sensitivity assessment were also carried out.

In total, 23 observational studies with 12 cohorts, seven cross-sectional and four case-control studies, were incorporated, together with 2,157,037 subjects. Osteoporosis subjects were more exposed to periodontitis (OR, 1.96). The subgroup assessment demonstrated that the raised risk of osteoporosis in periodontitis subjects exists in both case-control studies (OR 2.63) and cross-sectional studies (OR, 2.17), and marginally in cohort studies (OR, 1.70). Future investigations should elucidate the specific link between osteoporosis and periodontitis, concluded the study authors.