Next EFP Perio Talks will focus on EFP’s Perio & Caries campaign

The Perio & Caries campaign, sponsored by Colgate, was launched in January 2018 and features a wide range of material including:

• Five brochures, with specific recommendations for the oral-healthcare team, non-dental healthcare professionals, researchers, policymakers, and the public.
• The scientific report Relationship between caries and gum disease.
• Video interviews with the experts involved in the project.
• An infographic that explains the issues in a clear and scientifically rigorously way.

All the material is based on the outcomes of Perio Workshop 2016, jointly organised by the EFP and ORCA (European Organisation for Caries Research, and also sponsored by Colgate, which focused on “the boundaries between dental caries and periodontal disease”, reviewing all available evidence on interactions, common risk factors, and shared patterns between tooth decay and gum disease.

This workshop was the first major scientific attempt in the world to consider dental caries and periodontal disease not as separate entities, but as interrelated process that can share genetic, aetiological, social, and environmental determinants – although they follow different trajectories and usually emerge at different ages.

Commenting on the workshop and the campaign, Prof Sanz said: “These disease processes have been historically analysed under very different optics and the cultures of analysing the scientific evidence by the cariologists and the periodontists were clearly well apart. This workshop allowed us to identify the areas of convergence between these diseases and also the aspects in prevention and therapy that are key to both disease processes.”