PLoS ONE (Jan 2014)

Dental prophylaxis decreases the risk of esophageal cancer in males; a nationwide population-based study in Taiwan.

  • Ya-Ling Lee,
  • Hsiao-Yun Hu,
  • Nan-Ping Yang,
  • Pesus Chou,
  • Dachen Chu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109444
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 10
p. e109444

Abstract

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BackgroundPeriodontal disease (PD) is one of the most common chronic inflammatory diseases. Esophageal cancer (EC) is also a common cause of death due to cancer among males. Systemic inflammatory processes have been shown to increase the risk of cancer. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to investigate the association between PD and EC.MethodsA total of 718,409 subjects were recruited from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) and followed from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2010. Of these, 519,831 subjects were diagnosed with PD and were grouped according to the most advanced treatment they received: dental prophylaxis, intensive treatment, or no treatment. The IRs of EC were compared among groups.ResultsA total of 682 patients developed EC, resulting in an overall IR of 0.11 case-number per 1000 person-years (‰/y). The dental prophylaxis group had a significantly lower IR of EC (0.06‰/y) than other groups (pConclusionFor this cohort, subjects received dental prophylaxis reduced the risk of EC compared to all PD and no PD groups among males.