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Is there an association between periodontal condition and HIV infection?

Individuals in Tanzania who have limited access to medical and dental treatment provide an opportunity to study the natural association between periodontal condition and HIV infection and the stage of infection. 119 HIV-infected adult individuals and 73 individuals with AIDS from the AIDS Clinical Trial Clinic at Muhimbili Medical Centre (MMC) in Dar-es-Salaam participated as cases. Mean age was 35.3 and 35.1 years, respectively. 156 individuals with a mean age of 28.3 years, confirmed as HIV-seronegative, served as controls. There were no significant differences in bleeding on probing, pocket formation or attachment loss among the HIV-seronegative individuals, HIV-seropositive and AIDS patients. We applied multiple logistic regression to calculate odds ratios for presence of periodontal conditions adjusting for age, gender and DMFT. Our odds ratios did not reveal any significant associations between bleeding on probing, pocket formation or attachment loss with regard to lymphocyte and CD4+ T-cell counts among the HIV-infected individuals and AIDS patients. When associations were investigated with regard to HIV-serostatus (HIV-seronegative, HIV-seropositive or AIDS), our adjusted odds ratios were insignificant, too. In fact, most odds ratios were close to 1. Thus, our study supports recent views that the presence, extent and severity of periodontal disease among HIV-infected individuals, may be less that hitherto thought.