Influence of the vegan, vegetarian and omnivore diet on the oral health status in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Azzola L G, Fankhauser N, Srinivasan M. Evid Based Dent 2023; 24: 43-44.

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In this comprehensive Systematic Review, the authors examine what effect the increasing popularity of vegan and vegetarian diets might have on oral health and dental conditions. This is significant because although it has been reported that individuals following a vegan/vegetarian diet have good oral health, there have also been conflicting reports showing no benefits of this diet on salivary, periodontal and microbiological parameters - in fact, this article reveals that vegans/vegetarians may actually be associated with a higher risk for dental erosion.

In this review of 22 studies, a meta-analysis was performed in order to determine whether the following measures were better or worse in those following an omnivore or a vegan/vegetarian diet: bleeding on probing, overall periodontal health, dental erosion, dental caries and edentulism. Check out this Systematic Review in EBD to find out the overall results: www.nature.com/articles/s41432-023-00853-z

If you would like to publish your own Systematic Review, consider submitting it to EBD today! Formatting guidelines can be found here: www.nature.com/ebd/for-authors/preparing-your-manuscript

Does periodontal treatment improve glycaemic control in periodontitis patients with diabetes mellitus?

Dhingra K, Jeng J-H. Evid Based Dent 2023; 24: 12-14.

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Numerous links between periodontitis and systemic ill health have been made; however, before statistical associations between two conditions can be regarded as evidence of causality, there are various potential confounders which may need to be controlled. This is the impetus behind the new EBD collection 'Periodontal Disease and Systemic Health' (www.nature.com/collections/djdefchcbh), in which this article is included - and which is currently open to both Comment and Systematic Review submissions.

In this Comment, the authors pose the following question: does periodontal treatment improve glycaemic control in periodontitis patients with diabetes mellitus? The aim of the article upon which this piece is commenting was to update the evidence for the impact of subgingival instrumentation vs no active intervention on glycaemic control in diabetic patients with periodontitis. Several studies have explored the relationship between periodontitis and diabetes mellitus, and have demonstrated mixed results; however, the authors of this Comment deem the findings of this particular review to be reliable and of a 'high' GRADE rating. Check out their conclusions here: www.nature.com/articles/s41432-023-00863-x.