Can the Severity of Dental Caries Predict Hypertension in Adult Patients?

Dental problems are associated with hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. It is believed that untreated dental caries can lead to systemic physiological changes such as altered blood pressure control. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of hypertension and its association with the severity of dental caries among the adult population in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

This study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design, conducted in a university dental clinic in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It included 1365 adult patients. A questionnaire was used to collect the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants. World Health Organization guidelines were followed to confirm the presence of dental caries. Blood pressure was recorded as the average of the three readings. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 29. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression were used to determine predictors of hypertension. A p-value less than 0.05 was taken as a cut point to determine significance.

The male-to-female ratio of participants was 1:1.74, and the age range was between 18 and 90 years. Most participants (N = 604; 44.2%) had attained a tertiary level of education. Slightly more than half (N = 749; 54.9%) were married, and most (N = 395; 28.9%) had informal employment. Most patients (N = 592; 43.4%) had highly severe dental caries. About one-third (N = 457, 33.5%) of the participants were hypertensive. The DMFT scores of hypertensive patients were slightly higher than those without hypertension; however, the association was weakly positive (r = 0.145, p = 0.01). There was no statistically significant relation between hypertension and severity of dental caries (p ≥ 0.05).

Hypertension is prevalent among patients attending a university dental clinic. Dental caries and hypertension share some common risk factors as far as sociodemographic characteristics are considered. The severity of dental caries cannot be used to predict whether a patient is hypertensive or not.