Gingival State and Carbohydrate Metabolism

¹ Department of Oral Medicine, University Medical Center, Birmingham, Alabama

Two hundred and ninety patients were examined in terms of gingival pathosis; 120 in this group were studied by means of the classical glucose-tolerance test; the remaining 170 by means of the cortisone glucose-tolerance technique. Only the 1-and 2-hour determinations with the cortisone glucose-tolerance test showed significant differences of the means of the patients with and without gingival pathosis. Specifically, the group with gingival disease had a significantly higher mean blood-glucose level.

An analysis of variance disclosed significant differences fasting, and 2 and 3 hours with the classical glucose-tolerance test and 30-minute sample and the 2- and 3-hour [see figure in the PDF file] determinations with the cortisone glucose-tolerance procedure with the greater spread in the group with gingival pathosis.

A paired group study was also done on the basis of age and sex similar to the analysis for the entire group. In the paired analysis only the 1- and 2-hour determinations with the cortisone glucose-tolerance test showed a significant difference of the means with the group with gingival disease showing higher mean scores.

An analysis of the significance of the variance in the paired group disclosed significant differences fasting and 2 and 3 hours with the classical glucose-tolerance test and the 30-minute and 2-hour determinations with the cortisone glucose-tolerance technique.

It appears that there are only a few significant relationships between gingival state when one views the problem dichotomously (hyper- versus normoglycemia or diabetes mellitus versus no diabetes mellitus). However, if one views the data in a trichotomy (hyper-, normo-, and hypoglycemia), the results are much more different and more meaningful. In fact, there appeared to be a distinct correlation between this particular gingival finding and carbohydrate metabolism. More accurately, gingival pathosis seems to correlate with both relative hyperand hypoglycemia.