Periodontal status of patients with Sjögren's syndrome: a cross-sectional study

Sjögren's Syndrome (SS) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by xerostomia. Although it is confirmed that a common observation in SS is increased susceptibility to caries, the degree of influence of SS on periodontal disease has not been well-described. The purpose of this study was to determine the periodontal status of 14 SS female subjects and 14 age-matched females, who did not exhibit SS (controls). The mean age of the SS and control subjects were 52.9 +/- 11.6 and 53.7 +/- 8.9, respectively. The plaque (PI), gingival (GI), bleeding (BI) and calculus (CI) indexes, as well as probing depth (PD) and attachment level (AL), were estimated on 7 index teeth. Data were analyzed by means of the Student t-test. The results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between the SS and control groups: PI, PD and GI (p greater than 0.05); AL and CI (p greater than 0.1); and BI (p greater than 0.01). Thus, it may be concluded from this study that Sjögren's syndrome has no observable influence upon the indices measured in evaluating periodontal disease.