Diabetes Mellitus and Periapical Abscess: A Cross-sectional Study

Dental morbidities associated with diabetes mellitus (DM) include an increased prevalence of periodontal diseases (PDs). However, the occurrence of periapical infections in DM has not been sufficiently documented in the literature. The purpose of this study was to investigate the occurrence of periapical abscesses (PAs) in type 1 DM (T1DM) patients, type 2 DM (T2DM) patients, and nondiabetics in a hospital-based population.

We conducted a cross-sectional study by accessing the University of Florida Health Integrated Data Repository, and diagnoses of T1DM, T2DM, and PA were obtained from queries using the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision. The following parameters were recorded: age, sex, and race. A logistic regression model for aggregated data was used to assess the association between the occurrence of PA and the diabetic groups (T1DM, T2DM, and nondiabetic groups) after adjusting for PDs and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Among 867,526 patients, we found 5260 (0.6%) with T1DM and 52,493 (6.1%) with T2DM. The prevalence of PAs in the total hospital population was 4923 (0.6%), 102 patients (1%) with T1DM and 766 (6%) with T2DM with statistically significant differences. In subjects without PDs, diabetic patients are almost 3 times likely to have PAs compared with nondiabetic subjects. Among subjects with PDs, the association is weaker (odds ratio = 1.35) but still significant at a level of 0.05. In subjects without CVD, DM subjects are greater than 3 times more likely to have PA, whereas among subjects with CVD, subjects with DM are 1.5 times more likely to have PA.

A higher prevalence of PAs was reported in diabetic patients compared with the other hospital population. Comprehensive dental treatment should be administered to diabetic patients to maximize glycemic control.