Reducing uncertainty in estimating associations of oral exposures with Helicobacter pylori serology in the general population

Aim: Evidence for reducing Helicobacter (H.) pylori by periodontal therapy comes from small studies in China, limiting generalizability. To estimate the association between periodontal disease and anti-H. pylori IgG titer levels in a European country, we used population-based data from the Study of Health in Pomerania.

Materials and methods: For pocket depth as the primary exposure, we restricted the age range to participants younger than 60 years (n = 2,481) to avoid selection bias due to edentulism in this cross-sectional study. For the full age range up to 81 years, we chose the number of missing teeth (n = 3,705).

Results: The association between pocket depth and the outcome was weak. Given the ceiling effect for the number of missing teeth (ordinal logistic regression; odds ratio of the interquartile range effect = 1.6; 95% CI: 1.3-1.9; p-value for linearity = 0.005), we checked whether wearing removable dental prosthesis was associated with higher anti-H. pylori IgG titer levels (odds ratio = 1.3; 95% CI: 1.1-1.5).

Conclusions: Tooth loss and wearing removable dental prosthesis were weakly to moderately associated with higher anti-H. pylori IgG titer levels in the general population of a European country.