Association between multiple sclerosis and chronic periodontitis: A population-based pilot study

Background and purpose: The pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS) is still not fully understood, but multiple infections are known to be crucial in the development of the disease. Periodontitis caused by periodontopathic polymicrobial infections is among the most common chronic infectious disorders. This case-control study aimed to investigate the association between chronic periodontitis (CP) and MS using a population-based dataset in Taiwan. Methods: This study included 316 cases who had a diagnosis of MS and 1580 randomly selected controls. We performed conditional logistic regressions to investigate the association between MS and having been previously diagnosed with CP. Results: The results reveal that the prevalence of earlier CP was 25.6% and 15.4% for cases and controls, respectively (P