Gingival bleeding as a predictor of handgrip strength—an observational study and a pilot randomized clinical trial

The aim of this study was to (i) assess the association between self-reported periodontal disease and gingival bleeding as predictors of handgrip strength (HGS) in the elderly and (ii) evaluate the impact of baseline periodontal clinical parameters on the improvement of HGS in trained or non-trained treated periodontitis patients.

For (i), cross-sectional data from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging were retrieved and association between HGS (dependent variable) and self-reported gingival bleeding, periodontal disease, and missing teeth was analyzed using multiple linear regressions. For (ii), a pilot study was conducted with 17 patients randomly allocated to two groups—physical training or non-training—and followed for 45 days after subgingival instrumentation. Clinical parameters and HGS were recorded before and after treatment.

The observational study showed a significant association between HGS and tooth loss, edentulism and gingival bleeding. The clinical trial showed that baseline bleeding on probing, but not other parameters, was associated with delta HGS.

Taken together, our findings suggest that gingival bleeding could act as a predictor of handgrip strength and its improvement after non-surgical periodontal therapy.

Gingival bleeding, either as self-perceived or clinically detected, may impact handgrip strength, an important marker of muscle frailty and mortality.