TY - JOUR T1 - Periodontal Health, Systemic Inflammation, and Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Illness Requiring Supportive Care A1 - Michael Osei A1 - Ingrid Larsen A1 - Rajesh Menon A1 - Samuel Boateng JF - Journal of Integrative Nursing and Palliative Care JO - J Integr Nurs Palliat Care SN - 3006-5550 Y1 - 2024 VL - 5 IS - 2 DO - 10.51847/S6ipxzbrIX SP - 386 EP - 396 N2 - Periodontitis combines persistent microbial challenge, dysregulated host inflammation, progressive destruction of tooth-supporting tissues, and patient-experienced functional burden. Its relevance to chronic illness is increasingly considered beyond the oral cavity because periodontal inflammation can coexist with circulating inflammatory activity, metabolic dysregulation, cardiovascular risk, and conditions that compromise an individual’s capacity to maintain oral health. Yet oral–systemic associations are frequently interpreted more strongly than their underlying study designs permit. This conceptual article develops a mechanistic oral–systemic framework that separates local periodontal disease, dysbiosis, inflammatory dissemination, systemic inflammatory states, immune and oxidative-stress pathways, chronic-disease interaction, shared risk factors, functional consequences, and quality-of-life effects. Evidence from diabetes provides the clearest example of bidirectional interaction, whereas cardiovascular findings illustrate how longitudinal associations, microbial signals, and inflammatory changes can coexist without resolving all causal uncertainty. The resulting interpretation is therefore conditional: periodontal disease can contribute to systemic and patient-centred burden through several plausible routes, but the strength and direction of those routes depend on disease context, host susceptibility, shared exposures, treatment response, and the quality of the evidence used to infer them. UR - https://journalinpc.com/article/periodontal-health-systemic-inflammation-and-quality-of-life-in-patients-with-chronic-illness-requ-rbq11zwg2chvg0f ER -