A recent study showed that periodontal disease will make someone more prone to kidney disease.

Among different races, the study showed that African Americans with normal kidney function were four times as likely to develop chronic kidney disease when compared to those without severe periodontal disease. The information will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014.

Periodontal disease is a chronic bacterial infection of the oral cavity and disproportionately impacts people considered African American. It also has been pinpointed as a risk factor for CKD.

There were 699 African-American adults who took part in this study. The average follow-up visit was after close to five years and revealed that there 21 new cases of CKD. The study showed that people with severe periodontal disease had a 4.2-fold greater occurrence of CKD when taking into account age, diabetes, hypertension, income, sex and smoking compared to people without severe periodontal disease.

The onset of CKD can be thwarted in many of these cases when periodontal disease was treated properly.

This article can be found on DentistryToday.com