Background

There is an association between chronic periodontitis and cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, it is not known whether periodontal therapy could prevent or manage CVD in patients with chronic periodontitis.

Objectives

The objective of this systematic review was to investigate the effects of periodontal therapy in preventing the occurrence of, and management or recurrence of, CVD in patients with chronic periodontitis.

Search methods

Cochrane Oral Health’s Information Specialist searched the following databases: Cochrane Oral Health’s Trials Register (to 31 August 2017), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (the Cochrane Library, 2017, Issue 7), MEDLINE Ovid (1946 to 31 August 2017), Embase Ovid (1980 to 31 August 2017) and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL EBSCO) (1937 to 31 August 2017) . The US National Institutes of Health Trials Registry (ClinicalTrials.gov), the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform and Open Grey were searched for ongoing trials. No restrictions were placed on the language or date of publication when searching the electronic databases.

We also searched the Chinese BioMedical Literature Database (1978 to 27 August 2017), the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (1994 to 27 August 2017), the VIP database (1989 to 27 August 2017) and Sciencepaper Online (2003 to 27 August 2017).

Selection criteria

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi‐RCTs were considered eligible. Studies were selected if they included patients with a diagnosis of chronic periodontitis and previous CVD (secondary prevention studies) or no CVD (primary prevention studies); patients in the intervention group received active periodontal therapy compared to maintenance therapy, no periodontal treatment or another kind of periodontal treatment in the control group.

Data collection and analysis

Two review authors carried out the study identification, data extraction and risk of bias assessment independently and in duplicate. Any discrepancies between the two authors were resolved by discussion or with a third review author. A formal pilot‐tested data extraction form was adopted for the data extraction, and the Cochrane tool for risk of bias assessment was used for the critical appraisal of the literature.

Main results

No studies were identified that assessed primary prevention of CVD in people with periodontitis. One study involving 303 participants with ≥ 50% blockage of one coronary artery or a coronary event within three years, but not the three months prior, was included. The study was at high risk of bias due to deviation from the protocol treatment allocation and lack of follow‐up data. The trial compared scaling and root planing (SRP) with community care for a follow‐up period of six to 25 months. No data on deaths (all‐cause or CVD‐related) were reported. There was insufficient evidence to determine the effect of SRP and community care in reducing the risk of CVD recurrence in patients with chronic periodontitis (risk ratio (RR) 0.72; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.23 to 2.22; very low quality evidence). The effects of SRP compared with community care on high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein (hs‐CRP) (mean difference (MD) 0.62; ‐1.45 to 2.69), the number of patients with high hs‐CRP (RR 0.77; 95% CI 0.32 to 1.85) and adverse events (RR 9.06; 95% CI 0.49 to 166.82) were also not statistically significant. The study did not assess modifiable cardiovascular risk factors, other blood test results, heart function parameters or revascularisation procedures.

Authors' conclusions

We found very low quality evidence that was insufficient to support or refute whether periodontal therapy can prevent the recurrence of CVD in the long term in patients with chronic periodontitis. No evidence on primary prevention was found.