Health
oral health and
heart disease
new insight into the link between them
Recent research has shown how heart
health and oral health are closely related,
but even newer research in this field has
discovered that professional teeth cleanings
will lower the risk of heart disease. Some of
the research, conducted in Taiwan, found
that patients who had professional cleanings
had a reduced risk of heart attack and stroke.
Simultaneously another study was conducted
in Sweden which found that what type of gum
disease patients have may help predict their level
of risk for heart diseases like heart attack, stroke
and heart failure. Together these two studies can
offer dentists a new lens into the world of heart
disease and oral health.
In the Taiwan report the researchers, Emily
Zu-Yin Chen and Hsin-Bang Leu who are doctors
at the cardiology department of the Taipei
Veterans General Hospital, looked at information
gathered from fifty one thousand adults all over
Taiwan who had received a scaling treatment
from their dentist or dental hygienist. They also
looked at a control group of patients who had
never had their teeth cleaned professionally
before.
All of the participants in the study had no
history of stroke or heart attack. The researchers
followed up on the heart health of the patients
for an average of seven years after treatment.
The researchers’ data showed that those who
had had the professional scaling treatment were
twenty four percent less likely to experience a
heart attack than the group without the scaling
treatment. The scaling group also presented a
thirteen percent lower risk of stroke. They found
the results in both patients who had their teeth
cleaned at least twice in a period of two years as
well as in patients who had their teeth cleaned
less often.
Dr. Chen told the press that “Protection from
heart disease and stroke was more pronounced
in participants who got tooth scaling at least
once a year.”
Chen’s theory as to why the results showed
this pattern was that it might be that scaling
removes the bacteria in the mouth that cause
inflammation, and it is those same bacteria that
when released into the blood stream can cause
heart disease and strokes.
“Protection from heart disease
and stroke was more pronounced in
participants who got tooth scaling at
least once a year.”
6 WomanToWomanMagazine.com
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