Diabetes Mellitus Impact on Periodontal Status in Children and Adolescents

Diabetes mellitus is a systemic disease with several major complications affecting both the quality and length of life. One of these complications is periodontal disease. Periodontal disease (periodontitis) is much more than a localized oral infection, recent data indicating that periodontitis may cause changes in systemic physiology. The interrelationships between periodontitis and diabetes provide an example of systemic disease predisposing to oral infection, and once that infection is established, the oral infection exacerbates systemic disease. The relationship between periodontitis and diabetes has been extensively investigated over the last years, but despite of the numerous scientific studies on the influence of periodontal treatments on glycemic control, there is limited knowledge on the impact of glycemic control upon periodontal status. Moreover, the impact of periodontal treatment on sugar metabolic control in diabetics has not been fully elucidated, the present chapter intending an outlining of the features that governs the interrelationship diabetes mellitus – periodontal disease, a discussion of the present scientific evidences, mainly focusing on clinic-biological research in juvenile groups of population.