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48 implants 2 2016 news US company to study Genetic test for periodontal disease Caries treatment may prevent Pneumonia in Parkinson’s patients USA to expect Growing dentist shortage Interleukin Genetics, a US company that develops and markets a line of genetic tests for chronic diseases and health-re lated conditions, has announced that it will conduct a clinical study to assess the impact of its PerioPredict Genetic Risk Test on dental patient engagement for greater preventive dental care. The study will build on the company’s evidence base in support of the medical and economic value of the PerioPredict genetic testing platform. According to Interleukin Ge netics, the clinical study, which was expected to be gin on May 1, will include 800 dental patients from 20–30 general dentistry clinics who routinely visit their dentist only once a year although they are entitled to two visits a year by their insur ance coverage. The overall aim of the study is to assess wheth er knowing their increased risk of developing severe periodontal disease owing to a genetic tendency to overproduce inflammation might in fluence the frequency of preventive care visits for these patients. The study will be conducted in collaboration with a team of researchers at Duke University and the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in the US. Pneumonia is a common condition in patients with Parkinson’s disease. A new study that ex plored risk factors for pneumonia development has now found that patients treated for dental caries had a reduced risk of pneumonia compared with patients who had not been treated. The study included 2,001 participants newly di agnosed with Parkinson’s disease between 2000 and 2009. Over a mean follow-up period of about six years, 19 per cent of the patients were hos pitalised for pneumonia. With regard to oral health status, the researchers observed that dental dis eases were among the most common co-mor bidities. About 48 per cent of the patients in the study had dental caries and over 44 per cent periodontitis. Moreover, the data analysis showed that the incidence of pneumonia in patients who had received treat ment for dental caries was lower. They thus concluded that maintenance of good oral hygiene and control of oral biofilm formation reduce the number of potential respi ratory pathogens, thereby lowering the risk of pneumonia, especially in elderly men. The study, titled “Risk factors for pneumonia among patients with Parkinson’s disease: A Taiwan nationwide population-based study”, was published on 27 April in the Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treat- ment journal. The demand for dental care services in the US is projected to grow on a national level, main ly owing to demographic changes. However, a new report has forecast that all 50 US states will have a shortage of dental professionals in the near future. Based on dental workforce data from 2012, it is predicted that the excess growth in demand in relation to dentist supply will result in a national shortage of approximately 15,600 dentists in 2025. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the US De partment of Health and Human Services, which issued the report in February, over 46 million people in the US currently live in areas with a shortage of dental health professionals, and thus lack basic access to dental care. It is estimated that a total of about 15,600 additional dentists may be required to meet the actual demand in 2025. The report, titled “National and state-level projections of dentists and dental hygienists in the US, 2012–2025,” was published online on the HRSA website. ©nechaevkon/Shutterstock.com © tai11/Shutterstock.com ©nito/Shutterstock.com 22016