Bad Oral Health Linked to Heart Problems

A study published in the Journal of Endodontics (November issue 2012) has pointed out that patients with known heart complications have got more oral health issues too, and these patients also pay very little attention to their oral health in general.

For the study, there have been included about 100 patients.
Only during the past year, about 50% of them got the diagnosis of unstable angina or had a heart attack. The rest of the patients involved in the study did not have any heart complications.
The researchers compared the two groups of patients and here are the findings, regarding patients with heart complications:

• they were most likely to be heavy smokers
• they did not brush their teeth regularly
• the number of missing teeth was much greater in these patients
• endodontic lesions were present in the greatest majority of cases
• periodontal disease was present at quite a big number of patients
• patients with heart complications did not generally respect the regular dental cleaning appointments

On average, patients within the heart disease group were male, they were in the 48 to 50 years old age group and they were white. It is extremely important to note than even researchers say that this age group is considered quite young when it comes to a diagnosis such as heart disease.

Also, factors such as obesity or even being overweight are two major issues which are typically linked with heart disease. In the heart disease study group, none of the patients had these problems related to weight.
Proper oral health is extremely important for overall health as well. People should become more aware of the benefits of keeping their oral health in good condition, and not allowing certain issues to go out of hand.
When a patient has got gingivitis for instance it is much more easier to revert to good health, then if you allow gingivitis to turn into periodontal disease later on. With proper prevention many oral health risk factors can be diminished or eliminated, and it really takes only 10 minutes every day to perform regular dental hygiene, plus making sure to respect those scheduled dental appointments.


http://worldental.org/gums/bad-oral-health-linked-heart-problems/9365/