Xerostomia (dry mouth) is the cardinal symptom of Sjögren's syndrome (SS), which is an autoimmune disease involving the exocrine glands and other organs. Xerostomia may predispose patients to periodontal disease (PD) and an association between SS and PD has been reported. This association may be bidirectional; therefore, we conducted this study to investigate the risk of SS in patients with PD using data from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. A total of 135,190 patients were enrolled in our analysis. In all, 27,041 patients with PD were matched by gender, age, insured region, urbanization and income, with cases and controls in a 1:4 ratio. Both groups were followed and the risks of SS were calculated by Cox proportional hazards regression. Finally, 3292 (2.4%) patients had newly diagnosed SS. Patients with PD had a significantly higher risk of subsequent SS (903 (3.3%) vs. 2389 (2.2%), adjusted hazard 1.47, 95% confidence interval: 1.36⁻1.59). In conclusion, patients with PD had an approximately 50% increased risk of subsequent SS. Physicians should be aware of the symptoms and signs of SS in patients with PD.
Keywords: Sjögren’s syndrome; national health insurance research database; periodontal disease.