Gum disease and heart disease: The common thread
How plaque on your teeth may be connected to plaque in your arteries.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
People with gum disease (also known as periodontal disease) have two to three times the risk of having a heart attack, stroke, or other serious cardiovascular event. But there may not be a direct connection. Many people with heart disease have healthy gums, and not everyone with gum disease develops heart problems. Shared risk factors, such as smoking or an unhealthy diet, may explain the association. Still there's a growing suspicion that gum disease may be an independent risk factor for heart disease.
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Posting this at the request of another NTer. Taking care of your teeth may be more important than you think.
You're welcome!
And now I gotta hit the hay...i'll check back tomorrow.
Have a good night. Don't forget to brush and floss!
I did! LOL
Brush then floss? Or opposite of that? I usually floss then brush because since I was a kid, I have always brushed my teeth in the shower.
Floss, then brush.
I have had a few fillings but overall my teeth are in pretty good shape. I just brush in the shower because I don't have to wash the sink when I am done..
Naw, you just don't like having dragon breath, nothing wrong with brushing. I admit I brush twice a day, not three.
Excellent article!
Thanks, SP.
Unfortunately the site is making me sign up to read the article.
My dental hygienist is chatty and one time she mentioned that plaque control is important for heart health. I was unable to ask her why at the time. The comment confused me because I do not envision enough matter forming in the mouth and getting through our digestive system to form plaque any worse than the food we consume.
I am with the suspicion on statistical grounds, but I do not see the connection in terms of body chemistry.
Apparently, it let me read it once before the paywall kicked in. Sorry about that.
Different types of plaque.
One hypothesis is that plaque bacteria from the mouth can enter the bloodstream (actually, we know that this occurs), and can cause injury to the lining of arteries, possibly contributing to atherosclerosis. Another is that it's mediated by inflammation, which is a cause of both gum disease and heart disease. C reactive protein is a nonspecific indicator of inflammation, and is generally higher in both patients with gum disease and patients with heart disease.
Excessive consumption of sugar can increase inflammation.
At this time, only a correlative relationship has been shown, not a causative one. As we know that oral bacteria do enter the bloodstream, even from such innocuous activities as brushing and eating, oral health may well affect systemic health. However, it could just be that folks who don't floss also don't eat right and exercise.
Very true. Guess I am stuck in the middle on this one which means I will have to wait until more research is done.
My dentist was telling me that bad teeth in general can lead to heart disease, I found it hard to believe but looks like this article is indeed leaning in that direction.
Excellent information.
One of the key points I remember from na statistics course I once took:
Correlation does not necessarily imply causation.
I do not know whether poor dental hygene causes heart problems...or not.
However I wouldn't be surprised if people who are careless about good health habits in general (diet, exercise, poor emotional maturity) have a much higher incidence of all sorts of health problems.
Swallowng corruption twenty four hours a day must be harmful to your health. Sadly, the only real cure for peridontia is extraction. Periodontal disease is preventable for most by just getting the recommended twice yearly cleanings but poor dental hygiene, drug use and smoking can undo a lifetime of dental care fairly quickly...
True, but it often can be effectively treated for years.
Do we know what damage swallowing periodontal corruption for years and years might be doing to the body outside of the mouth during those intervening years? It smells awful. Could those suffering peridontia, even with good care, be harming their long-term health by delaying extraction? I suppose it would depend on personal hygiene some but I cannot imagine that waiting too long before extraction would not also be harmful.
Not really, but treatment is aimed at making everything as cleansible as possible. I've had patients who responded very well to therapy, and once they learned how to care for their mouths (many hadn't been taught), actually keep their teeth quite clean, so I'm not too worried about them swallowing bacteria or their products.
In those who don't maintain well, especially the elderly, aspiration of plaque bacteria is a problem. It can lead to pneumonia. But many of those patients are so frail that extractions can be hard on them.
Back in the 1960s while still in their 20s and in addition to deep root plainings, both of my parents had their gums actually removed by a dental surgeon. Daddy died with all of his teeth and my ancient Mom has all of hers. She still looks great though the effect was to give them both what appeared to be very long teeth. I remember they each had four surgeries doing only a quarter of their mouths each time. Afterwards where their gums had been was packed with a hard pink waxy molded gumlike product for quite a long time. Have you ever heard of this? Afterwards they both observed strict cleaning regimes and got cleanings done four times per year without fail. I do not think this is ever done anymore though i do not really know. It was quite an ordeal for them then...
Yes, it's still done, although not as commonly as a few decades ago. Removing some gum tissue is done to make the roots more accessible for cleaning. The packing guides the healing of the tissue afterwards. Now, much of that can be accomplished with less invasive surgery, but removing some tissue is still performed, selectively.
Without subscribing to the site, I was allowed to read only the first two paragraphs of the seeded article. The following article supports what I read:
It was odd - the first time I checked the site, I was able to read the article in its entirety, so I didn't know there was a paywall. Thanks for the link.
Your welcome, sandy. One aspect that many articles don't address is that periodontal and cardiac diseases can also be attributable to genetics.
Yes, and those times are frustrating for dentist and patient. When both are doing everything right, and the disease still progresses and they lose teeth, it's depressing. I imagine it's the same for cardiologists.
True! During successive generations both sides of my family gradually migrated simultaneously together first from England then on to Ireland and from there to Kentucky then to Tennessee and on to Missouri and finally to the Red River Valley straddling SW Oklahoma and Northern Texas in search of new and fertile farmlands. Both my Father's Mother and my Mother's Father are descended from a different daughter and son of Daniel Boone and both parents are distant cousins of Jesse James. They attended the same small rural schools and the same church and so they lived and worked and socalized with each other for at least six generations. Mom and Dad are not exactly cousins but they definitely do come from the same basic genetic stock. A genetic test has confirmed this. The result is that some very good traits got emphasized and some less than good traits did, too. Everyone in my family has a strong heart, good teeth, bad gums, flat feet and an almost infallible predisposition against ever getting diabetes. There is no getting around our genetic makeup...