CRP and periodontitis: Systemic inflammatory disease states associated with periodontal disease are hypothesized to occur due to transmigration of periodontal pathogens and/or periodontitis-associated inflammatory mediators, such as IL-1, IL-6, CRP, and fibrinogen in the bloodstream (Genco and Van Dyke, 2010; Bokhari et al., 2012; D’Aiuto et al., 2013; Schenkein et al., 2020).