Association between toothbrushing habits and mucosal healing in Japanese patients with ulcerative colitis

Objective Evidence regarding the association between oral environment and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including ulcerative colitis (UC) exists. However, evidence regarding the association between oral health parameters and disease activity of UC is limited. This study aimed to evaluate the association between remaining tooth number, and toothbrushing frequency and mucosal healing (MH) in Japanese UC patients. Method The study included 275 patients with UC. Information on lifestyle and oral health parameters was collected via self-administered questionnaires. The definition of MH was based on the Mayo endoscopic subscore (MES) of 0. Results The prevalence of MH in this cohort was 24.7%. The distribution of remaining teeth was as follows: 13.1% had 20 or fewer teeth, 32.7% had 20–27 teeth, and 54.2% had 28 or more teeth. Toothbrushing frequency was: 23.6% brushed once or less per day, 46.9% brushed twice per day, and 29.5% brushed three or more times per day. No significant difference was observed between remaining teeth and MH. However, toothbrushing frequency is independently positively associated with MH (adjusted odds ratio: 2.87 [95% CI: 1.19–7.29]; p-value for trend = 0.021). Conclusion Toothbrushing frequency but not remaining tooth number was independently and positively associated with MH in Japanese patients with UC.