Relationship between tooth loss and peripheral arterial disease among women.

AIM: We assessed the longitudinal association between tooth loss and peripheral arterial disease (PAD) within the Nurses' Health Study.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: After excluding participants with prior cardiovascular diseases, 277 of 79,663 women were confirmed as PAD cases during 16 years of follow-up. Number of teeth and recent tooth loss were reported initially in 1992. Subsequent tooth loss was recorded in 1996 and in 2000. We evaluated the associations of baseline number of teeth and recent tooth loss with risk of PAD, adjusting for age, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, aspirin use, family history of myocardial infarction, BMI, alcohol consumption, physical activity, postmenopausal hormone use, and use of vitamin E, vitamin D, multivitamin and calcium.

RESULTS: Incident tooth loss during follow-up was significantly associated with higher hazard of PAD (HR = 1.31 95% CI: 1.00-1.71). However, the association appeared inverse among never smokers. There was no dose-response relationship between baseline number of teeth and PAD.

CONCLUSIONS: Tooth loss showed a modest association with PAD, but no dose-response relationship was observed.