Hormone‐related events and periodontitis in women.

Aim: While the short‐term effects of hormonal events on gingival inflammation have been well described, long‐term effects on the periodontium have received less attention. The aim of this cross‐sectional population‐based study was to evaluate the association between hormone‐related events and periodontitis in a representative sample of the postmenopausal women of South Korea. Materials and Methods: A total of 10,273 postmenopausal women representative of 6.1 million of Koreans were examined. Periodontitis and severe periodontitis were defined according to the Community Periodontal Index (CPI ≧ 3 and CPI = 4, respectively). Univariate and multivariate regression analyses using 3 different models were applied controlling for age, smoking, marital status, educational level, income, BMI, hypertension, stress and frequency of toothbrushing. Results: Severe periodontitis was directly associated with a longer reproductive life (p‐trend =.027) and with a longer duration of breastfeeding (48–72 vs. 1–17 months: OR = 1.49; 95% CI: 1.01–2.21). Conversely, early menopausal age (<46 vs. 49–50 years: OR = 0.74; 95% CI: 0.56–0.97), history of artificial menopause (OR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.53–0.97), having had more than 6 pregnancies (vs. 4: OR = 0.73; 95% CI: 0.55–0.97), having had more than three abortions (vs. 0: OR = 0.51; 95% CI: 0.28–0.93) and having had the first birth age >26 years (vs. <21 years: OR = 0.71; 95% CI: 0.52–0.97) were inversely associated with severe periodontitis. Conclusions: In this large nationally representative population, severe periodontitis was related to menopausal age, reproductive life length, number of pregnancies/abortions, first birth age and breastfeeding duration, while it was not to oral contraceptive and hormone replacement therapy usages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]