Association between metabolic syndrome and oral health: a bibliographic review

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between metabolic syndrome (MS) and oral health. Methods: This is a bibliographic review with articles available in the PubMed, SciELO, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Portal Periodicos databases, published between 2010 and 2020. The keywords used were metabolic syndrome, oral health, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, periodontitis and caries. Results: MS and oral pathologies are some of the biggest health problems in the world today and tend to increase with the development of countries and with the aging of the population. The literature indicates a close relationship between MS and oral health, mainly associating diabetes mellitus (DM) and periodontitis, obesity and dental caries, cardiovascular disease, and periodontitis. Inflammatory factors and diet are important mediators of these relationships. Conclusion: MS and oral health are associated through the mechanisms of inflammation, the immune system, and the diet. MS can reciprocally aggravate dental caries and periodontitis, as well as oral treatment can assist in the treatment of MS, but there are still controversial results and this relationship should be further clarified.