“In a way, it’s really quite an old story, because back in the early 19th century there was a therapy called focal sepsis, and people believed that infections in the mouth caused disease in the whole body,” Watt said

“As a result, they used to take everyone’s teeth out.”

Watt said such a response was “a bit dramatic,” but his findings did suggest that twice-a-day brushing was a good idea.

Gum or periodontal disease is an infection of the tissue surrounding and supporting the teeth and is more likely to occur in people who do not brush their teeth regularly.

Heart disease is a leading killer of men and women in Europe, the U.S. and many other rich nations and together with diabetes, accounted for almost a third of all deaths around the world in 2005, according to the Worlds Health Organization.

The teeth brushing study published on Friday in the British Medical Journal was the first to investigate whether the simple number of times someone brushes their teeth daily has any bearing on the risk of heart disease.

The results showed oral health behaviors were generally good, with 62% of participants saying they visited the dental every six months and 71% reporting they brushed their teeth twice a day.

Once the data were adjusted for other known heart risk factors such as social class, obesity, smoking and family history of heart disease, those who reported less frequent teeth brushing had a 70% extra risk of heart disease compared to those who brushed twice a day.

Blood tests on those with poor oral hygiene were also positive for two factors called C-reactive protein and fibrinogen – both of which signal inflammation in the body

Source – drbicuspid.com

Trackback URI | Comments RSS