Periodontitis (PD) is a common oral disease associated with various other diseases, particularly those affecting the cardiovascular system. This study explored whether peripheral artery occlusive disease (PAOD) is associated with PD and dental scaling. This study was a retrospective cohort study design from 2000 to 2018. The study population was newly diagnosed with periodontitis. The comparison group was defined as never diagnosed with periodontitis. The outcome variable was defined with the diagnosis of peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD). The propensity score matching was performed by age, sex, comorbidities, and dental scaling between the two groups. Kaplan–Meier analysis was used to calculate the cumulative incidence of PAOD among the two groups. To perform the independent risk of the PAOD group, the multivariate Cox proportional hazard model was used to estimate the hazard ratios. First, 792,681 patients with PD and 458,521 patients with no history of PD were selected from Taiwan’s Longitudinal Health Insurance Database, which comprises the data of two million beneficiaries. After propensity score matching between the PD and non-PD groups for age, sex, comorbidities, and dental scaling, 357,106 patients in each group were analyzed for PAOD risk. The incidence density, relative risk, and cumulative incidence of PAOD were higher in the PD group than in the non-PD group. After adjusting for all variables, the risk of PAOD for the PD group was greater than for the non-PD group (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.03; 95% CI, 1.01–1.06). Undergoing at least one dental scaling procedure reduced the risk of PAOD. Age over 65 years was also a risk factor. In conclusion, patients with PD have an increased risk of PAOD. In addition, our results can lead to increased attention to oral hygiene, as dental scaling has a trend towards a lower risk of PAOD.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between elevated cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and type of anesthesia by using the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan in a one-year follow-up period. We assessed whether general anesthesia (GA) or neuraxial anesthesia (NA) increased CVD occurrence in lower-limb fracture patients. Approximately 1 million patients were randomly sampled from the NHIRD registry. We identified and enrolled 3437 lower-limb fracture patients who had received anesthesia during operations conducted in the period from 2010 to 2012. Next, patients were divided into two groups, namely GA (n = 1504) and NA (n = 1933), based on the anesthetic technique received during surgery. Our results revealed that those receiving GA did not differ in their risk of CVD relative to those receiving NA, adjusted HR = 1.24 (95% CI: 0.80–1.92). Patients who received GA for more than 2 h also did not differ in their risk of CVD relative to those receiving NA for less than 2 h, adjusted HR = 1.43 (95% CI: 0.81–2.50). Moreover, in the GA group (i.e., patients aged ≥65 years and women), no significant difference for the risk of CVD events was observed. In conclusion, in our study, the difference in the risk of CVD between lower-limb fracture patients receiving NA and GA was not statistically significant. The incidence rate of CVD seemed to be more correlated with patients’ underlying characteristics such as old age, comorbidities, or admission to the intensive care unit. Due to the limited sample size in this study, a database which reviews a whole national population will be required to verify our results in the future.