Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Pusan National University, Busan, Korea.
J Periodontol. 2009 Dec;80(12):1928-36. doi: 10.1902/jop.2009.090293.
The oral effect of chronic low-level mercury exposure is not completely understood. This study examined whether mercury exposure is associated with periodontitis.
This study cross-sectionally surveyed 1,328 residents (598 males and 730 females) from the prospective Shiwha and Banwol cohort in Korea from July 2005 to August 2006 at baseline. Two dentists assessed periodontitis, an outcome, using the Community Periodontal Index (CPI): CPI 3 or 4 and CPI 0 to 2 were classified as periodontitis and non-periodontitis, respectively. The hair mercury level, the predictor, was analyzed. The mercury level was categorized according to the reference dose of the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States: normal = <1 ppm and high = > or =1 ppm. Age, gender, economic status, smoking, frequency of daily toothbrushing, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, and obesity were assessed as confounders. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the adjusted association. Subgroup analyses for gender were also performed.
Mercury exposure was independently associated with periodontitis (odds ratio = 3.17). Males with high mercury levels had a 50.0% higher probability of having periodontitis than females with normal mercury levels. Of them, the interaction effect between the body burden of mercury and gender was 39.0%. The odds ratio between periodontitis and high mercury levels was higher for males than females (95% confidence interval: 0.99 to 2.23 versus 0.59 to 1.26, respectively).
These results suggest that mercury exposure had an independent association with periodontitis. High body-burden mercury in males might be a contributory factor linked with periodontitis.
慢性低水平汞暴露的口腔影响尚不完全清楚。本研究旨在探讨汞暴露是否与牙周炎有关。
本研究于 2005 年 7 月至 2006 年 8 月在基线时对来自韩国前瞻性 Shiwha 和 Banwol 队列的 1328 名居民（598 名男性和 730 名女性）进行了横断面调查。两名牙医使用社区牙周指数（CPI）评估牙周炎的结局：CPI3 或 4 和 CPI0 至 2 分别被归类为牙周炎和非牙周炎。分析预测指标头发汞水平。根据美国环境保护署的参考剂量对汞水平进行分类：正常=<1ppm 和高=>或=1ppm。评估年龄、性别、经济状况、吸烟、每日刷牙频率、糖尿病、高脂血症和肥胖等混杂因素。采用 logistic 回归分析评估调整后的关联。还进行了性别亚组分析。
汞暴露与牙周炎独立相关（比值比=3.17）。高汞水平的男性发生牙周炎的可能性比正常汞水平的女性高 50.0%。其中，汞的体内负荷与性别之间的交互作用为 39.0%。牙周炎与高汞水平之间的比值比在男性中高于女性（95%置信区间：0.99 至 2.23 与 0.59 至 1.26 相比）。
这些结果表明，汞暴露与牙周炎有独立的关联。男性体内高负荷的汞可能是与牙周炎相关的一个促成因素。
