Periodontal health status and bacteraemia from daily oral activities: systematic review/meta‐analysis

Abstract Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the robustness of the observations on the influence of oral hygiene, gingival and periodontal status on the development of bacteraemia from everyday oral activities ( B‐EOA ), analysing its prevalence, duration, magnitude and bacterial diversity. Material and Methods: This systematic review/meta‐analysis complies with PRISMA reporting guidelines. MEDLINE ‐PubMed, the Cochrane Library and Embase were explored for detecting studies on B‐EOA . Results: There were 290 potentially eligible articles, of which 12 article on B‐EOA fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were processed for data extraction (seven on toothbrushing, one on dental flossing and four on chewing). Evaluating the influence of plaque and gingival indices on the prevalence of bacteraemia following toothbrushing, the pooled odds ratios were 2.61 [95% confidence interval ( CI ) = 1.45–4.69] and 2.77 (95% CI = 1.50–5.11), respectively. None of five studies on bacteraemia following dental flossing and chewing revealed a statistically significant association between oral hygiene, gingival or periodontal status and the development of bacteraemia. Conclusions: Meta‐analysis showed that plaque accumulation and gingival inflammation scores significantly increased the prevalence of bacteraemia following toothbrushing. However, systematic review showed no relationship between oral hygiene, gingival and periodontal status and the development of B ‐chewing, and there is no evidence that gingival and periodontal health status affects B ‐flossing.