Association Between Regular Dental Scaling and Risk of Dementia in Patients With Moderate to Severe Periodontitis Longitudinal Study Using Korean National Health Insurance Service‐National Health Screening Cohort Data Base

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of regular dental scaling by evaluating the association between the frequency of dental scaling and the risk of dementia in individuals with moderate to severe periodontal disease. METHODS: This study used the Korean National Health Insurance Service-National Health Screening cohort database. Following the implementation of the dental scaling reimbursement policy, subjects were categorised into three groups based on the frequency of dental scaling. To enhance comparability of dementia risk across dental scaling frequency categories, we applied the inverse probability of treatment weighting method. Restricted cubic splines were utilised to examine hazard ratio trends for dementia. Landmark analyses were conducted to further strengthen the reliability of the results. RESULTS: In the Landmark analysis with follow-up after 1 year, the adjusted hazard ratio was 0.51, and the inverse probability of treatment weighting hazard ratio was 0.40. In the Landmark analysis with follow up after 2 years, the adjusted hazard ratio was 0.50, and the inverse probability of treatment weighting hazard ratio was 0.39. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that regular dental scaling in patients with moderate to severe periodontitis is associated with a reduced risk of dementia. In particular, changes in reimbursement policies are needed to ensure that underprivileged individuals with periodontal disease have access to regular dental scaling services.