Inability to Deal With The Stress of Financial Problems Increases Risk of Gum Disease

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Financial stress can be detrimental to your dental health, but only if you don’t face your money problems squarely, researchers at the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine have found.

In addition, their research into psychosocial risk factors for periodontal disease showed that the amount of the hormone cortisol in the saliva can be used as an indicator of the level of stress a person is experiencing.

Results of the research, conducted by a team from the UB Periodontal Disease Research Center headed by Robert J. Genco, D.D.S., Ph.D., will be presented Thursday, March 14, at the annual meeting of the International Association for Dental Research in San Francisco.

The study involved evaluating a sample of 1,426 men and women from Erie County, N.Y., for amount of gum detachment and loss of bone in the jaw in which teeth are anchored -- two measures of periodontal disease. They also gathered information on general health, smoking and oral-hygiene habits, and assessed for presence of periodontal bacteria.

The subjects also took a series of tests designed to measure stress, distress and coping behavior. Based on the results from these tests, subjects’ method of coping was designated as either emotion-focused -- the “head-in-the-sand” response -- or problem-focused, the rational, straight-forward approach.

“We found that after correcting for smoking, amount of dental care, and all other factors, the only difference between those who had a lot of periodontal disease and those who did not was amount of financial stress,” Genco said.

“Then, when we separated the emotion-focused-coping group from the problem-focused-coping group, we found that the problem-focused subjects who were under financial stress had no more periodontal disease than those who weren’t experiencing stress,” he said. “These results tell us that financial strain is a risk indicator for destructive periodontal disease, but one’s coping behavior may modify this risk.”

Having established this relationship, the researchers set out to identify a biochemical marker for persons at risk for periodontal disease because of stress. Knowing that levels of the hormone cortisol in body fluids is an indicator of the body’s physiological response to stress, they measured the level of cortisol in the saliva of 96 persons.

The participants were divided into two groups: a test group composed of high-emotion-focused copers with established periodontitis and a high level of financial strain; and a control group of low-emotion-focused copers with low financial strain and no periodontal disease.

Results showed that cortisol levels were higher in the test group than the control group, indicating that the amount of the hormone present in saliva can be used as an indicator of stress.

Genco said this response needs to be studied in a larger population to determine the extent of the relationship and its possible clinical applications.