Dental scaling and atrial fibrillation: A nationwide cohort study

Background Improvement of oral hygiene through dental scaling was associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular events. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether dental scaling can reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). Methods In year 2000, a total of 28,909 subjects who were age 60 or more without past history of cardiac arrhythmias were identified from the "National Health Insurance Research Database" in Taiwan. Among these subjects, those who have received dental scaling at least 1 time/year for 3 consecutive years (1998-2000) were selected to be the exposed group (n = 3391). A total of 13,564 age, sex and underlying disease-matched subjects without receiving dental scaling were identified to be the non-exposed group. The study endpoint was the occurrence of new-onset AF. Results During a follow-up of 4.6 ± 1.1 years, 478 participants (2.8%) developed AF. The exposed group had a lower AF occurrence rate than non-exposed group (2.2% versus 3.0%; p value = 0.017). After an adjustment with age, gender, and comorbidities in the multivariate analysis, dental scaling was associated with a reduced risk of AF (hazard ratio = 0.671, 95% CI = 0.524-0.859; p value = 0.002). Among the exposed group, the hazard ratio in developing AF was 0.340 (95% CI = 0.247-0.489; p value < 0.001) when subjects received 1 more dental scaling per year. Conclusions The risk of AF was lower in subjects receiving dental scaling. Improvement of oral hygiene by dental scaling may be a simple and useful way to prevent AF.