diff --git a/extension.json b/extension.json
index 23f2d561f..5c884ef19 100644
--- a/extension.json
+++ b/extension.json
@@ -620,6 +620,10 @@
 			"value": "default",
 			"description": "Override availability of DiscussionTools visual enhancements's reply buttons sub-feature. 'default', 'available', or 'unavailable'."
 		},
+		"DiscussionToolsEnablePermalinksBackend": {
+			"value": true,
+			"description": "Enable the permalinks backend. Do not enable this unless the database tables exist."
+		},
 		"DiscussionToolsAutoTopicSubEditor": {
 			"value": "discussiontoolsapi",
 			"description": "Editor which triggers automatic topic subscriptions. Either 'discussiontoolsapi' for edits made using DiscussionTools' API (e.g. reply and new topic tools), or 'any' for any editor."
diff --git a/includes/ThreadItemStore.php b/includes/ThreadItemStore.php
index 195c88ea3..e2d7d3d71 100644
--- a/includes/ThreadItemStore.php
+++ b/includes/ThreadItemStore.php
@@ -16,9 +16,9 @@ use MWTimestamp;
 use ReadOnlyMode;
 use stdClass;
 use TitleFormatter;
+use Wikimedia\Rdbms\IDatabase;
 use Wikimedia\Rdbms\ILBFactory;
 use Wikimedia\Rdbms\ILoadBalancer;
-use Wikimedia\Rdbms\IMaintainableDatabase;
 use Wikimedia\Rdbms\IResultWrapper;
 use Wikimedia\Rdbms\SelectQueryBuilder;
 
@@ -81,19 +81,16 @@ class ThreadItemStore {
 	 * @return bool
 	 */
 	private function isDisabled(): bool {
-		static $tablesCreated = null;
-		if ( $tablesCreated === null ) {
-			$tablesCreated = $this->getConnectionRef( DB_REPLICA )->tableExists( 'discussiontools_items', __METHOD__ );
-		}
-		return !$tablesCreated;
+		$dtConfig = $this->configFactory->makeConfig( 'discussiontools' );
+		return !$dtConfig->get( 'DiscussionToolsEnablePermalinksBackend' );
 	}
 
 	/**
 	 * @param int $dbIndex DB_PRIMARY or DB_REPLICA
 	 *
-	 * @return IMaintainableDatabase
+	 * @return IDatabase
 	 */
-	private function getConnectionRef( int $dbIndex ): IMaintainableDatabase {
+	private function getConnectionRef( int $dbIndex ): IDatabase {
 		return $this->loadBalancer->getConnectionRef( $dbIndex, [ 'watchlist' ] );
 	}