Exploring the role of Vitamin D in oral health and bone remodeling: Implications for apical periodontitis and tooth loss Relationship between Vitamin D and apical periodontitis

Aim: Vitamin D is a fat-soluble steroid hormone that has a pivotal role in Calcium, Phosphorus and bone mineralization. It plays a crucial biological role in maintaining normal bone health, growth, and development, including teeth and jaws. This retrospective study was designed to explore the correlation between Vitamin D levels and the prevalence of apical periodontitis, extracted teeth, the size of apical periodontitis Material and Methods: A total of 114 patients were obtained from the archives of patients who were previously recorded at the Faculty of Dentistry for dental diagnosis. Patients were classified according to their Vitamin D levels. All teeth were evaluated as missing and apical periodontitis. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to evaluate the normality. Due to non-normal distribution, the relationship between diagnosis and Vitamin D level was examined using the Kruskal-Wallis test. A model was constructed with linear regression analysis. Results: No significant difference was found between Vitamin D levels regarding the prevalence of extracted teeth, apical lesion. Apical lesion size and Vitamin D level were negatively correlated. Discussion: In this study, it was considered that Vitamin D deficiency negatively affects the size of apical periodontitis. However, it does not affect the prevalence of tooth loss and apical periodontitis.