Academic Editors: Giuseppe Biondi Zoccai and Victor L. Serebruany
Background: A potential relationship between oral health and
cardiovascular diseases has been proposed. However, uncertainty remains as to
whether there is sufficient data to support this association. This review aims to
appraise the relationship between apical periodontitis and cardiovascular disease
based on data from observational studies. Methods: The databases Medline
(via PubMed) and EMBASE (via Scopus) were searched up to August 2020 for
observational studies (case-control, cross-sectional, and cohort) assessing the
association of apical periodontitis with cardiovascular disease among adults.
Pooled relative risk/odds ratio and 95% confidence interval (CI) were estimated
using a random-effects model. Sensitivity analyses and random-effects
meta-regressions were performed. Results: The initial search yielded
2537 documents, of which 15 were eligible for inclusion, including 8
cross-sectional studies, 5 case-control studies, and 2 cohort studies. The
majority of studies enrolled both men and women, with mean age ranging from 41 to
66 years. In cross-sectional studies, the presence of apical periodontitis was
significantly associated with cardiovascular disease with a combined odds ratio
of 1.53 (95% CI: 1.02–2.29, p = 0.039; I