association between periodontal indices and rheumatoid arthritis based on the status of disease control: a cross-sectional pilot study

Background: rheumatoid arthritis (ra) is the most common chronic inflammatory joint disease. previous studies have shown that periodontitis and ra have a probable bilateral relationship. this study aimed to investigate the association between periodontal indices and ra activity levels in ra activity levels and to compare these indices by disease status.methods: in this cross-sectional pilot study, 50 patients referred to the public rheumatology clinic who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled. they were allocated into three groups based on disease activity: inactive, active, and recurrent active rheumatoid arthritis. periodontal indices, including bleeding on probing (bop), clinical attachment loss (cal), pocket depth (pd), tooth loss (tl), and rheumatologic indices, such as hemoglobin level, were recorded and compared between groups. significance was set at a p-value <0.05.results: no significant differences in demographic data, periodontal status, or laboratory parameters were found among the ra groups (p>0.05)., with the sole exception of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (esr), which showed a significant difference (p=0.016).conclusion: unlike esr, periodontal indices showed no significant differences across ra activity states. these findings are hypothesis-generating rather than definitive evidence of causality. therefore, clinical recommendations linking periodontal status to ra activity should be made cautiously pending further longitudinal studies.