{"id":1254,"date":"2016-07-19T15:42:45","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T21:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alpinedentalhealth.com\/?p=1254"},"modified":"2018-09-21T11:11:26","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T17:11:26","slug":"dental-health-heart-disease-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpinedentalhealth.com\/dental-health-heart-disease-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Dental Health and Heart Disease \u2013 Is There a Connection?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You might have heard that taking care of your oral health could prevent heart disease. It\u2019s certainly true\u00a0that there is a correlation between the two since research shows that those who suffer from poor oral\u00a0health\u2014and more especially from gum disease\u2014have a higher risk of heart disease. There are a number of lines of evidence that suggest that taking care of your teeth and gums could help your heart, even if\u00a0the research hasn\u2019t pinned down an exact connection.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Shared Effects of Dental Health and Heart Disease<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Periodontitis (gum disease) and heart disease involve some of the same effects on the body. These\u00a0shared effects include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Inflammatory proteins<\/strong>: Levels of CRP (C-reactive protein) in the bloodstream can be used to\u00a0determine someone\u2019s risk of heart attack. The higher the levels, the more the risk. The amount\u00a0of this protein also increases in those with moderate to severe gum disease.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bacteria<\/strong>: Many of the types of bacteria associated with periodontitis are also found in hardened arteries that contribute toward heart disease.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The fact that both diseases are associated with inflammation and similar bacteria is strong evidence that\u00a0there may be a connection between the two.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Common Risk Factors<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s possible that the connection is not so much between oral health and cardiovascular disease in and of\u00a0themselves, but rather in the habits that predispose an individual to them. Both periodontitis and heart\u00a0disease share some of the same risk factors. The following factors indicate an increased likelihood that\u00a0an individual might develop either gum disease or heart health issues:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Smoking<\/li>\n<li>Diabetes<\/li>\n<li>Old age<\/li>\n<li>Inflamed arteries<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The main point here is that the two could occur together, even if one doesn\u2019t necessarily cause the\u00a0other. Each could stem from the same factors, but might otherwise be unrelated.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Causation?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>As the research stands now, there is no evidence that poor oral health causes heart disease. While the\u00a0research shows that there is a correlation\u2014one is often found with the other\u2014no direct links have been\u00a0found between the two.<\/p>\n<p>Still, there is reason to believe that there might be a connection, but more research will be needed\u00a0before we can determine what that connection might be. Some possibilities include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Poor oral health could cause heart disease<\/strong>: Poor oral health leads to increased levels of certain\u00a0bacteria in the mouth, and those bacteria could find their way into the bloodstream.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Heart disease could lead to periodontitis<\/strong>: Conversely, the bacteria associated with\u00a0atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) may find their way into the mouth. There might be other causation effects at work as well.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Both just happen to be caused by similar factors<\/strong>: It could simply be a case where the same risk factors for one also happen to lead to the other. Habits that lead to heart disease coincidentally<\/li>\n<li>contribute toward gum disease as well.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Some combination of these<\/strong>: It\u2019s also quite possible that there is a more complex relationship between poor oral health and cardiovascular disease than a simple \u201cone causes the other\u201d\u00a0scenario. Each could feed into the other, and their similar risk factors could affect each one in\u00a0individual ways.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Again, there isn\u2019t any conclusive evidence to indicate the exact connection, but there is still reason to\u00a0believe that there is one. As it stands now, however, there is only a correlation, nothing more.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Dental Care<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Taking care of your teeth could help your heart, but you shouldn\u2019t look to prevent heart attacks or\u00a0strokes only by brushing and flossing daily. Habits such as keeping a healthy diet and exercising regularly\u00a0are definitively shown to reduce the odds of heart disease, so those should be incorporated into your\u00a0daily routine.<\/p>\n<p>This doesn\u2019t diminish the importance of keeping up on your dental health, however. It might not\u00a0necessarily spare you from a heart attack, but keeping up on oral hygiene has other benefits in that it\u00a0prevents tooth decay and gum disease. Always be sure to brush, floss, and visit your dentist regularly to\u00a0keep up on your oral health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You might have heard that taking care of your oral health could prevent heart disease. It\u2019s certainly true\u00a0that there is a correlation between the two since research shows that those who suffer from poor oral\u00a0health\u2014and more especially from gum disease\u2014have a higher risk of heart disease. There are a number of lines of evidence that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dental-health-questions","category-oral-health-care"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dental Health and Heart Disease - is there a connection?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is there a connection between your dental health and the risk of heart disease? 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