Assessing the relationship between diabetes mellitus and dental caries among US adults: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2013-2020.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the relationship between diabetes prevalence and dental caries experience among a representative sample of US adults. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: We used data on participants 25 years and older with complete data from the continuous National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cycles in 2013-2020. We defined diabetes prevalence using glycohemoglobin and self-reported diabetes. Dental caries was operationalized using the decayed, missing, filled teeth (DMFT) score from a standardized dental examination. We used Poisson models to examine adjusted associations with dental caries experience or the DMFT score. RESULTS: We found a dose-response association between diabetes prevalence and DMFT score (RR = 1.017, 95 % CI: 0.994-1.041 for prediabetes and RR = 1.045, 95 % CI: 1.017-1.074 for diabetes) after adjusting for age, sex, race, education, family income to poverty ratio, smoking status, body weight and last dental visit. CONCLUSIONS: Diabetes prevalence was associated with higher dental caries experience. Future studies should examine the mechanism and interventions to ameliorate this association.