association between asthma and periodontal disease

objective: an association between poor oral health and chronic lung disease has recently been reported. the purpose of this study was to explore this potential association between asthma and periodontal disease. materials and methods: this is a descriptive case controlled study. the samples were selected from patients referred to respiratory disease clinic in a hospital in tehran, iran. the study population comprised of one hundred individuals: fifty asthmatics and fifty asthmatic controls evaluated for plaque index (pi), gingival index (gi), papillary bleed-ing index (pbi), periodontal disease index (pdi) and calculus index (ci). the data were analyzed by spss software. results: there were significant differences between asthmatics and non-asthmatic sam-ples in pi, gi, bop, and pdi (p<0.01). however, there was no such differences in ci be-tween the two groups (p=0.084). conclusion: the results of the present study support recent published reports advocating a relationship between respiratory disease and periodontal health status.