Increased dental visits in patients prior to diagnosis of primary Sjögren’s syndrome: a population-based study in Taiwan

The objective of this study was to investigate the utilization of ambulatory dental services in patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) prior to their diagnosis using a population-based health claim database in Taiwan. From the Registry of Catastrophic Illness database in the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan, we identified 389 patients who were diagnosed with pSS from 2005 to 2010. We also obtained 1,945 control subjects frequency-matched on sex, 10-year age interval, and enrollment date from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database. Both groups were retrospectively traced to 1997 to obtain any records of utilization of dental care services that occurred preceding the index date. Patients with pSS had significantly higher utilization of annual ambulatory dental services over an eight-year interval preceding diagnosis. A significantly higher proportion of patients with pSS (95.1 %) had utilized ambulatory dental services over the whole eight-year interval preceding diagnosis compared with the controls (88.8 %) (p < 0.001). Utilization of ambulatory dental services for dental caries, pulpitis, gingivitis, stomatitis, and periodontitis were significantly greater in patients with pSS over a three-year period prior to diagnosis compared with the controls. In conclusion, the utilization of ambulatory dental services was significantly increased in patients with pSS preceding its diagnosis. Health professionals can play an important role in the early recognition of pSS by including it in the differential diagnosis for xerostomia-related complaints.