Diabetes Mellitus and Periodontal Diseases

The purpose of this review is to provide the reader with practical knowledge concerning the relationship between diabetes mellitus and periodontal diseases. Over 200 articles have been published in the English literature over the past 50 years examining the relationship between these two chronic diseases. Data interpretation is often confounded by varying definitions of diabetes and periodontitis and different clinical criteria applied to prevalence, extent, and severity of periodontal diseases, levels of glycemic control, and complications associated with diabetes.

This article provides a broad overview of the predominant findings from research published in English over the past 20 years, with reference to certain "classic" articles published prior to that time.