The Link Between Oral Health and Systemic Health
Updated May 25, 2007
The link is clear. Oral health directly affects systemic disease. Putting off dental care may not only lead to pain and suffering, but actually shorten your life. Oral infection is just as great a health risk as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.
Dentists and other health care professionals have suspected for years that there was a correlation between patients' general systemic health and their oral health. Patients have felt this was a possibility and have often asked their dentists if their teeth could be responsible for the general decline in their health. Often, though, busy physicians have totally overlooked the mouth as a source of systemic disease, and they have casually referred their patients to talk to their dentists about this question.
Now the importance of oral health is being magnified by studies that have shown a direct correlation between oral infection (periodontal disease) and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and premature birth.
Here are some excerpts from recent professional journals:
- "Early studies suggest that mothers with severe gum disease may have a sevenfold increased risk of having a premature baby."
- "Six longitudinal studies have shown that periodontal disease has increased the risk of heart attack and stroke."
- "We know that gum disease is associated with exposure of bacteria to the blood and that these organisms lodge in the vessel walls and persist."
- "Evidence suggests that the diabetic condition is worsened by existing infection, such as periodontal disease."
- "Lung infections are more frequent in patients with periodontal disease, especially those patients who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease."
- "Bacteria in oral plaque are linked to a weakened immune system that can slow wound healing and diminish a person's response to vaccines against hepatitis B and influenza."
Coronary heart disease results in approximately 500,000 deaths in the United States each year. Because of its magnitude, CHD has been extensively studied and its many risk factors have been identified. Everyone knows the risks of smoking, alcohol abuse, and overeating. These factors are certainly important to your overall health, but in 11 of the 12 most recent studies of the relationship between dental disease and coronary heart disease, which included these lifestyle practices as a variable in their studies, the dental parameters were often the most significant. This result indicates the magnitude of dental disease as a powerful independent risk factor.
Unfortunately, for many people who have not sought regular professional care, periodontal disease and other dental disease can go on unnoticed for many years. Because there is often no pain associated with the bacterial invasion of the structures surrounding the teeth, it is only an acute episode of pain that leads to the discovery of oral disease. This silent killer may have been present for many years and already affected the patient's cardiovascular system, raising their blood pressure with the formation of arterial plaques that house oral bacteria and their byproducts.
Today the same preventative philosophy that has ended the epidemic of dental decay over the past 20 years for our children needs to be applied to the treatment of adult periodontal disease and its devastating systemic effects.
- Lawrence B. Musser, D.D.S.
Bibliographic Sources:
Bonner, Phillip, D.D.S.: The Link Between Periodontal Disease and Systemic Health. Dentistry Today, July, 1999.
Loeche, Walter J., D.M.D., Ph.D.: Periodontal Disease: Link To Cardiovascular Disease. Compendium, Vol. 21, No. 6, June, 2000.
These articles are the property of Musser & Richards, LLC, and may not be reprinted without prior permission.
The Link Between Oral Health and Systemic Health
Updated May 25, 2007
The link is clear. Oral health directly affects systemic disease. Putting off dental care may not only lead to pain and suffering, but actually shorten your life. Oral infection is just as great a health risk as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.
Dentists and other health care professionals have suspected for years that there was a correlation between patients' general systemic health and their oral health. Patients have felt this was a possibility and have often asked their dentists if their teeth could be responsible for the general decline in their health. Often, though, busy physicians have totally overlooked the mouth as a source of systemic disease, and they have casually referred their patients to talk to their dentists about this question.
Now the importance of oral health is being magnified by studies that have shown a direct correlation between oral infection (periodontal disease) and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and premature birth.
Here are some excerpts from recent professional journals:
- "Early studies suggest that mothers with severe gum disease may have a sevenfold increased risk of having a premature baby."
- "Six longitudinal studies have shown that periodontal disease has increased the risk of heart attack and stroke."
- "We know that gum disease is associated with exposure of bacteria to the blood and that these organisms lodge in the vessel walls and persist."
- "Evidence suggests that the diabetic condition is worsened by existing infection, such as periodontal disease."
- "Lung infections are more frequent in patients with periodontal disease, especially those patients who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease."
- "Bacteria in oral plaque are linked to a weakened immune system that can slow wound healing and diminish a person's response to vaccines against hepatitis B and influenza."
Coronary heart disease results in approximately 500,000 deaths in the United States each year. Because of its magnitude, CHD has been extensively studied and its many risk factors have been identified. Everyone knows the risks of smoking, alcohol abuse, and overeating. These factors are certainly important to your overall health, but in 11 of the 12 most recent studies of the relationship between dental disease and coronary heart disease, which included these lifestyle practices as a variable in their studies, the dental parameters were often the most significant. This result indicates the magnitude of dental disease as a powerful independent risk factor.
Unfortunately, for many people who have not sought regular professional care, periodontal disease and other dental disease can go on unnoticed for many years. Because there is often no pain associated with the bacterial invasion of the structures surrounding the teeth, it is only an acute episode of pain that leads to the discovery of oral disease. This silent killer may have been present for many years and already affected the patient's cardiovascular system, raising their blood pressure with the formation of arterial plaques that house oral bacteria and their byproducts.
Today the same preventative philosophy that has ended the epidemic of dental decay over the past 20 years for our children needs to be applied to the treatment of adult periodontal disease and its devastating systemic effects.
- Lawrence B. Musser, D.D.S.
Bibliographic Sources:
Bonner, Phillip, D.D.S.: The Link Between Periodontal Disease and Systemic Health. Dentistry Today, July, 1999.
Loeche, Walter J., D.M.D., Ph.D.: Periodontal Disease: Link To Cardiovascular Disease. Compendium, Vol. 21, No. 6, June, 2000.
These articles are the property of Musser & Richards, LLC, and may not be reprinted without prior permission.