Prevalence of blood pressure levels and hypertension-related diseases in Japanese dental patients

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of blood pressure levels and hypertension-related diseases and to evaluate the risks associated with dental patients in Japan. Research design: Retrospective cross-sectional. Method: Blood pressure levels and medical histories of hypertension-related diseases obtained from 3,811 adult outpatients consulting a University Dental Hospital were investigated. Blood pressure levels were compared with those reported in the Japanese national survey obtained from a standard Japanese population. The relationships between gender or age and blood pressure level or the rate of the subjects with a hypertension-related disease were evaluated. Results: Mean values of blood pressure in the present study were similar to those in the Japanese national survey. Among hypertension-related diseases, hypertension showed the highest prevalence (10.9%) in subjects. Blood pressure levels and the rates of subjects with hypertension-related diseases were significantly related to increasing age. Elderly subjects had a tendency to combine hypertension or high blood pressure with hypertension-related diseases. Further, 20.4% of subjects who had not been diagnosed with hypertension had high blood pressure. Among them, 1.5% had blood pressure more than 180/110 mmHg. Conclusions: The results suggested that blood pressure levels of dental patients would reflect the prevalence of blood pressure levels and hypertension in the Japanese general population, and that high blood pressure and increasing age are the greatest risk factors in the medical status of dental patients. Furthermore, because many subjects examined were unaware of their high blood pressure levels, caution is required prior to performing dental procedures.