How Gum Disease is Related To The Heart Diseases

Periodontitis, or gum disease, is a serious infection of the soft tissues that surround the teeth. Without treatment, gum disease can lead to bone destruction and, ultimately, tooth loss.

Bacteria in dental plaque, or tartar, cause gum disease by triggering an inflammatory response that steadily erodes soft tissue and bone.

In the early stages of the disease, called gingivitis, the gums become swollen and red and may bleed. Without treatment, the gums may start to recede from the teeth, there may be bone loss, and the teeth can loosen or fall out.

Dentists recommend using a soft toothbrush twice a day and flossing once a day to prevent the buildup of plaque and reduce the chances of gum disease.

They also recommend undergoing scaling and debridement twice a year, which is the only way to remove plaque that has built up below the gumline.

The incidence of gum disease increases with age. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 47.2%Trusted Source of people aged at least 30 years in the United States have gum disease to some degree. This figure increases to 70.1% among people aged at least 65 years.

However, scientists have found it challenging to prove a direct, causal link between gum disease and these conditions because they have several risk factors in common, such as smoking.

A new study led by researchers at two institutions in Massachusetts, the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, in Boston, and the Forsyth Institute, in Cambridge, among others, provides evidence that gum disease really can set people on the road to major cardiovascular events, such as strokes and heart attacks.

The researchers discovered that individuals with signs of inflammation associated with active gum disease at the start of the study were significantly more likely to have a cardiovascular event.

Individuals with inflammation of their gums were also more likely to develop inflammation in their arteries, which can go on to cause cardiovascular disease.

Crucially, these associations remained statistically significant, even after the scientists had accounted for other factors associated with both gum disease and heart disease, including age, sex, smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, and dyslipidemia, or abnormal levels of fat in the blood.

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