Author Q & A: Does treatment for gum disease help people with diabetes control blood sugar levels?

We spoke to  Cochrane Oral Health Author Terry Simpson about the updated review Treatment of periodontitis for glycaemic control in people with diabetes mellitus.  He explains the results of this review and what it means for the research community as well as medical, nursing, and dental professionals - with thanks also to Josh Twigg, Ambrina Qureshi, Sarah Wild, Ian Needleman and Laura MacDonald.Terry, can you tell us about this updated Cochrane Review?Our review of studies evaluating the impact of treatment of periodontitis (gum disease) on glycaemic control in people with diabetes was originally published in 2010 (based on a protocol published in 2004) and first updated in 2015. For the 2022 update, we divided the review in two due to the sheer volume of studies on this topic and to account for the clear divide that has emerged in the research, focusing on two different key questions. This update answers the question: how does treatment of periodontitis compare to usual care or no treatment for improving glycaemic control in people with diabetes; the second part of the update will compare different approaches to treatment of periodontitis against one another, to assess if there is a gold standard for treatment.This first part of our update found that glycaemic (blood sugar) control in people with diabetes can be improved with treatment of periodontitis. The improvement in diabetic control from treating any periodontitis appears to be approximately equivalent to the th...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - Category: Information Technology Authors: Source Type: news