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Review
. 2013 Jan;22(1):4-11.
doi: 10.4103/0972-6748.123585.

Stress and periodontal disease: The link and logic!!

Sachin Goyal  1 , Garima Gupta  2 , Betsy Thomas  3 , K M Bhat  3 , G S Bhat  4
Affiliations
Review

Stress and periodontal disease: The link and logic!!

Sachin Goyal et al. Ind Psychiatry J. 2013 Jan.

Abstract

Stress is an equated response to constant adverse stimuli. At one point or another everybody suffers from stress. Stress is compatible with good health, being necessary to cope with the challenges of everyday life. Problems start when the stress response is inappropriate to the intensity of the challenge. Psychological stress can down regulate the cellular immune response. Communication between the central nervous system and the immune system occurs via a complex network of bidirectional signals linking the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. Stress disrupts the homeostasis of this network, which in turn, alters immune function. Direct association between periodontal disease and stress remains to be proven, which is partly due to lack of an adequate animal models and difficulty to quantifying the amount and duration of stress and also there are many factors influencing the incidence and severity of periodontal disease. Nevertheless, more recent studies indicate that psychosocial stress represents a risk indicator for periodontal disease and should be addressed before and during treatment. This paper discusses how stress may modulate host response to bacteria and influence the course and progression of periodontal disease.

Keywords: Immunosuppression; inflammatory periodontal disease; psychosocial stressors; stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal-axis
Figure 2
Figure 2
Model-1 for the effects of stress on periodontal disease
Figure 3
Figure 3
Model-2 explaining the role of stress and its effects on behavior resulting in periodontal disease
Figure 4
Figure 4
Stress correlation with systemic diseases and periodontal disease
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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