Dr. Huabin Luo published “Oral Health, Diabetes, and Inflammation: Effects of Oral Hygiene Behaviour”

Dr. Huabin Luo published a paper titled “Oral Health, Diabetes, and Inflammation: Effects of Oral Hygiene Behaviour.” in the International Dental Journal. The paper discusses diabetes and poor oral health that share a common mechanism (i.e., chronic inflammation). It is plausible that having these two conditions concurrently would potentially increase the inflammation level. Yet little is known about the joint contribution of these two conditions to inflammation. Given the high prevalence of both poor oral health and diabetes in the elderly population, we assess the association between inflammation and poor oral health or diabetes individually and combined, and the mediating role of oral hygiene behavior in this association. We analyzed data from the 2009-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Our study results show having both significant tooth loss and diabetes was associated with a higher risk of elevated inflammation, and frequent flossing may help to attenuate the risk.