. 2022 Oct 1;56(3):155–171.

Table 3.

Study findings for obesity associated with periodontitis

Reference

Study type(s)

Outcome

Strength of evidence

Suvan et al. 2018⁴³

(Includes refs 48-56)

Meta-review of SRs:

14 SRs reporting on prevalence, incidence, response to periodontal therapy, and biomarkers

Prevalence: obese individuals compared to those with normal weight are more likely to have some form of periodontal disease

Incidence: Studies consistent with findings that obesity places individuals at higher risk for periodontal disease

Response to periodontal therapy:

Of 6 SRs, 2 reported no differences^49,53, while 4 had mixed results^50,51,54,55

Strong

Inconsistent

Khan et al. 2018⁵⁷

SR:

25 studies

Explored whether overweight or obesity was a risk factor for periodontal disease in young adults & adolescents

Obesity was positively associated with periodontal disease in 17 of 25 studies, with ORs ranging from 1.1 to 4.5.

Moderate to strong

Chen et al. 2021⁵⁹

13-year longitudinal population-based cohort study:

Obese cohort: 4,140

Non-obese cohort: 8,280

Those who were obese were at slightly higher risk for periodontal disease (HR 1.12; 95% CI, 1.01–1.25)

After subgroup analysis, obese individuals older than 65 years had a much higher risk for periodontal disease (HR 1.98; 95% CI, 1.22–3.22)

Weak

Moderate to strong

(based on cohort size and study length)

Gonçalves da Silva et al. 2021⁵⁸

SR & MA:

90 studies (82 of which were cross-sectional/clinical trials)

Focus on gingival inflammation

Majority of studies found no significant differences between obese & non-obese in gingival inflammation

MA revealed higher levels of gingival inflammation in those with periodontitis compared with non-obese individuals

*This could suggest a dose-response relationship

No evidence