Dentists' visits are not associated with the risk of brain abscess, according to a recent study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Brain abscesses are frequently caused by oral cavity bacteria, but whether dental status and invasive dental procedures are important risk factors is unknown.
A nationwide, population-based, case-control study examined the association between dentist's visits and invasive dental procedures and the risk of brain abscess caused by oral cavity bacteria from 1989-to 2016. The date of brain abscess diagnosis was considered the index date. Using risk-set sampling, 10 population controls per case were individually matched by age, sex, and residential area. Conditional logistic regression was used to compute odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusted for comorbidity (aOR).
Results of the study are:
The researchers identified 362 patients with culture-proven brain abscesses caused by oral cavity bacteria. The median age was 53 years (IQR 39 - 65) and 220/362 (61%) were male. Invasive dental procedures within six months before the index date was observed in 21/362 (6%) brain abscess patients and 179/3257 (5%) population controls yielding an aOR of 1.07 (95% CI 0.67-1.70). A total of 213/362 (59%) brain abscess patients had visited their dentist within one year before the index date compared with 1944/3257 (60%) of the population controls corresponding to an aOR of 0.99 (95% CI 0.77-1.26). Using no dentist's visits as a reference, we observed aOR's of 0.95 (95% CI 0.64-1.40) for 1-2 visits within three years of the index date and 1.01 (95% CI 0.76-1.35) for 3 or more visits.
Thus, the researchers concluded that the recent invasive dental procedures and number of dentist's visits were not associated with culture verified brain abscess caused by oral cavity bacteria.
Reference:
Dentist's visits and risk of brain abscess: a nationwide, population-based case-control study by Jacob Bodilsen, et al. published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases.
https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/cid/ciab1054/6490156