Diabetes may increase risk of apical periodontitis after root canal treatment

At present, the incidence of diabetes mellitus (DM) is gradually increasing globally. In clinical practice, many diabetic patients with apical periodontitis (AP) have poor and slow healing of periapical lesions. However, the potential relationship between the two is still unclear and controversial. The consensus is that DM can be deemed a risk factor for AP in endodontically-treated teeth. Therefore, we pooled existing studies and carried out a meta-analysis to explore the potential association between the two.

Studies that met the inclusion criteria were selected from the database, and relevant data were extracted. Stata SE17.0 software was used to analyze the relevant data, and the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to assess the literature’s quality. The pooled odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to determine the strength of the association between DM and the prevalence of AP after root canal treatment (RCT).

Results

After searching, 262 relevant studies were retrieved, fifteen of which met the inclusion criteria. A total of 1,087 patients with 2,226 teeth were included in this meta-analysis. According to the findings, diabetics showed a higher prevalence of AP after RCT than controls at the tooth level (OR = 1.51, 95% CI = 1.22-1.87, p < 0.01). At the patient level, DM increased the probability of developing AP in RCT teeth more than three times (OR = 3.38, 95% CI = 1.65-6.93, p < 0.01). Additionally, subgroup analysis was performed by blood glucose status, preoperative AP and study design. Except for the status of blood glucose, the results were significant in the other two groups (p < 0.05)

Available scientific evidence suggests that DM may increase the risk of AP in endodontically-treated teeth. In teeth with preoperative AP, DM might promote the development of AP.

Reference:

Xinyue Liu, Guiying He, Zhengjie Qiu, Liangjun Zhong, Cheng Ding, Xing Chen, et al. Diabetes mellitus increases the risk of apical periodontitis in endodontically-treated teeth: a meta-analysis from 15 studies. Published: July 26, 2023DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joen.2023.07.016

Keywords:

Diabetes, increase, risk, apical, periodontitis, after, root canal treatment, journal of Endodontics, Xinyue Liu, Guiying He, Zhengjie Qiu, Liangjun Zhong, Cheng Ding, Xing Chen, periapical lesions, meta-analysis, apical periodontitis, diabetes mellitus, root canal treatment