Perceived oral health in patients with Crohn's disease

Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate perceived oral health of patients with Crohn's disease (CD) in comparison with a control group without CD.

Methods: The study population comprised 1943 patients with CD recruited from The Swedish National Patients Organisation of Inflammatory Bowel Diseased and 1000 randomly selected controls. All participants received a questionnaire containing questions concerning socio-economic variables, education, civil status, income and dental care habits, oral health and tobacco use.

Results: Patients with CD perceived their oral health as significantly worse than controls. The odds ratio (OR) was 7.8 after adjustment for age and smoking. The patients also reported a significantly greater need for dental treatment than the controls, with an OR 6.12 after taking into account for age and smoking habits. Furthermore, the patients with CD reported significantly more mouth related problems than controls (OR 3.1), such as significantly more caries and more gingival bleeding. Of note, there were significantly more smokers in the patient group.

Conclusion: Our results have shown that patients with CD perceived worse oral health and have a greater need for dental treatment compared to a control group.