Intake of different alcoholic beverages and periodontal condition

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to study the association of alcoholic beverages and serum gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) level with periodontal condition.

Material and methods: The study included 4294 dentate, non-diabetic Finnish adults aged 30−65 years who underwent periodontal examination during the Health 2000 Survey. The number of teeth with deepened (≥4 mm) periodontal pockets was the outcome. The exposures were self-reported beverage-specific alcohol intake (amount and frequency) and serum GGT level. The relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were obtained by fitting zero-inflated negative binomial regression models.

Results: We found no consistent association of either the intake of different alcoholic beverages or GGT level with the number of teeth with deepened periodontal pockets in the total study population or among the non-smokers. Among the highly educated non-smokers, spirit intake was associated with a low likelihood of having teeth with deepened periodontal pockets; RRs varied between 0.3 and 0.8. Among the non-smokers who had basic or intermediate education, spirit intake was associated with a higher likelihood of having teeth with deepened periodontal pockets; RRs varied between 1.2 and 1.8.

Conclusion: In general, neither the intake of different alcoholic beverages nor the GGT level was consistently associated with the number of teeth with deepened periodontal pockets.

Keywords:

• Alcoholic beverages
• frequency of alcohol intake
• amount of alcohol intake
• periodontal disease
• socioeconomic position

Acknowledgements

The present study is part of the Health 2000 Examination Survey, organized by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) (formerly the National Public Health Institute [KTL] of Finland) (www.terveys2000.fi) and partly supported by the Finnish Dental Society, Apollonia, and the Finnish Dental Association.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interests and have nothing to disclose in this study.