Zhang S, Philips KH, Moss K, et al. - Researchers sought to determine if periodontal disease is positively linked to incident diabetes across the continuum of body mass levels (BMI) and test the hypothesis that the periodontal risk for incident diabetes is modified by BMI. The study followed 5,569 diabetes-free participants from Visit 4 (1996-1998) of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study until 2018. One thousand three hundred forty-eight incident diabetes cases and 1,529 deaths occurred during a median time of 19.4 years of follow-up. Periodontal disease was linked to incident diabetes, particularly among non-obese participants. Dentists should be aware that periodontal disease is associated with incident diabetes, but that the association may be modified for patients with higher BMI levels.