Letter to the Editor

This letter is in regard to the article "Risk of periodontal disease in patients with asthma: a nationwide population-based retrospective cohort study" authored by Shen and collaborators in the August 2017 issue of the Journal of Periodontology. We found the authors' results interesting and believe that addition of the following points may have enhanced the potential implications of their observations. The role of mast cells in asthma is well-established, and mast cells also appear to have a role in the initiation of the inflammatory cascade that leads to periodontal destruction. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.