The interesting link between gum disease and heart health

When new patients come to Huszti Dental Care, they often are surprised when we ask them about their medical history. One patient recently said he didn’t think a dentist would need to know about his mild heart disease, because it doesn’t affect his teeth.

But dental professions know something that would surprise most people: many diseases can be detected in the mouth before symptoms show up elsewhere.

Conditions like diabetes, osteoporosis, some cancers, even acid reflux have symptoms that a good dental practitioner will see at your regular visits. This is especially true about heart disease, which has links to periodontal disease. If you have periodontal disease, studies show, you are more likely to also have atherosclerosis, or a buildup of plaque in the arteries.

Plaque in the arteries is not the same substance as the plaque regular dental visits help remove. Plaque on your teeth is a bacterial film, and plaque in the bloodstream is fat, cholesterol and calcium that attaches to the sides of arteries and restricts bloodflow. But they are related in one important way: If you have periodontal disease, chances are you may also have plaque in your arteries.

Researchers are divided on why this is. It could be as simple as the fact that someone with poor oral hygiene is probably not taking care of his body in other ways, as well. Other studies suggest that if your body is fighting disease in the mouth, it increases inflamation throughout the body, which seems to increase your risk to many other systemic diseases.

But it goes too big a leap to say that periodontal disease actually causes heart disease. Still, studies have shown that treating periodontitis can improve the health of artery walls. And there are probably many other researchers studying the link between gum disease and heart disease.

At Huszti Dental Care, we are always looking for new research that will help us better serve our Milford and Highland patients. And that’s why we ask every time you come to our office whether there have been any health changes since the last time you visited. No health issue is too small.

And that’s another reason to see us every six months — sometimes we are the only doctor patients see on a regular basis, and finding a problem early usually leads to better outcomes for you.