Periodontal health and systemic conditions

According to the new classification proposed by the recent 2017 World Workshop on Periodontal and Peri-implant Diseases and Conditions, periodontitis, necrotizing periodontal diseases, periodontitis as a manifestation of systemic diseases, and systemic diseases or conditions affecting the periodontal supporting tissues, are considered as separate entities. Scientific evidence has demonstrated that periodontal diseases are not just simple bacterial infections but rather complex diseases of multifactorial complexity that interplay with the subgingival microbes, the host immune, and inflammatory responses. Despite dental plaque biofilm being considered the primary risk factor for periodontitis in the vast majority of patients that dentists encounter on a daily basis, there are other factors that can also contribute and/or accelerate pathologic progressive attachment loss. In this article, the authors aim to briefly review and discuss the present evidence regarding the association between periodontal diseases and systemic diseases and conditions.