Associations between the Periodontal Disease in Women before Menopause and Menstrual Cycle Irregularity

The association between menstrual cycle irregularities and system disease has been evaluated in previous studies. However, the association between periodontal disease and menstrual cycle irregularity has not been fully investigated. The study aimed to evaluate the relationship between periodontal disease and tooth loss in women before menopause and menstrual cycle irregularity using nationally representative data. This study performed a cross-sectional analysis and used hierarchical multivariable logistic regression analysis models. Data from Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) between 2010 and 2012 were analyzed. The analysis in this study was confined to a total of 1553 respondents over 19 years old who had not gone through menopause and had no missing values for the reproductive factors and outcome variables. A community periodontal index was greater than or equal to code 3 was used to define periodontal treatment needs. The risk of periodontal treatment needs tended to increase in the presence of menstrual cycle irregularity after adjustment for potential confounders (P for trend in the odds ratios=.0481 in model 1; 0.0613 in model 2; 0.0369 in model 3; 0.0456 in model 4). The number of natural teeth of 28 did not reach statistically significant differences (P for trend in the odds ratios=0.2204 in model 1; 0.2373 in model 2; 0.2814 in model 3; 0.2609 in model 4). Menstrual cycle irregularity was positively associated with the risk of periodontal treatment needs in Korean women before menopause. However, there was no significant association between tooth loss and menstrual cycle irregularity. Menstrual cycle irregularity may be considered to be a potential risk indicator for periodontal treatment needs in Korean women before menopause.