Dental News

Keeping Your Teeth Healthy Could Help Keep Your Heart Healthy Too

April 26, 2017

Keeping Your Teeth Healthy Could Help Keep Your Heart Healthy Too

If someone asked you for a list of ways you could work to keep your heart healthy, would you even consider your teeth? Many people don’t but they should. For example, a person who uses a toothpaste that targets plaque can lower overall inflammation, which can reduce their chance of heart attack. The American Journal of Medicine completed a comprehensive study on this issue and the findings were very interesting.

Oral health is important whether you already have heart disease or not

For people who already have coronary heart disease, it’s just as important to maintain good oral health. Why? Because a study found that if a person loses a tooth, then they are at higher risk of both stroke and death related to heart disease if they already had coronary heart disease. Overall, the study found that when compared to a person who still had all their own teeth, a person who’d lost all their teeth had much higher health risks, including:

  • An increase of 27% for risk of major cardiovascular event
  • An increase of 67% for risk of stroke
  • An increase of 85% for risk of cardiovascular death
  • An increase of 81% for risk for all types of death

When a patient had only lost a few teeth, the risk still increased. In fact, for every tooth lost, their risk goes up about 6%.

Don’t be alarmed – You can use this information for good

This information can be jarring and scary but it doesn’t have to be. It’s true that heart disease is the number one killer of men and women in the United States and takes the lives of over 600,000 people every year. It’s also true that gum disease can increase the risk of a first heart attack by more than 25%. However, the good news is that California Dental Group can help treat your gum disease.

Studies aren’t totally clear on cause and effect

Though the findings in these studies make a strong case that there’s some sort of link between gum disease and heart disease, we still don’t know if having gum disease causes heart disease or vice versa. One reason it’s hard to be sure is that gum disease and heart disease have a lot of the same risk factors, including poor nutrition, diabetes, and smoking.

You can prevent gum disease

We are happy to help treat gum disease but, as with any medical condition, the best option is to prevent it. To do so, make sure you’re brushing and flossing regularly. We recommend brushing at least twice a day for at least two minutes and flossing each time. A healthy diet that has plenty of vitamin A and vitamin C can make a big difference, and reducing or totally eliminating sugars and starches can be a big help too.

Finally, if you’re a smoker, quit. If you use smokeless tobacco, quit. Either one can completely destroy your gums and can significantly increase your chance of heart disease. To learn about other ways to improve your oral health, get in touch with California Dental Group today at (800) 407-0161.

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