Dentist Cleanings = Less Heart Disease

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DENTAL NEWS
Scientists in Taiwan found that people who had their teeth cleaned by a dentist (i.e. tooth scaling) reduced their chances of having a heart attack by 24% and their chance of stroke by 13% than those who never had their teeth professionally cleaned. The results of the study were presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011 meeting.

The study included more than 51,000 adults who had received at least one full or partial tooth scaling and a similar number of people matched with gender and health conditions who had no tooth scaling. Scientists who did the study consider regular tooth scaling to be at least twice or more in two years while occasional tooth scaling was once or less in two years.

"Protection from heart disease and stroke was more pronounced in participants who got tooth scaling at least once a year," said Emily (Zu-Yin) Chen, M.D., cardiology fellow at the Veterans General Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan.

In a separate study presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011 meeting, researchers found that the value of markers for gum disease predict heart attack, congestive heart failure and stroke in different ways and to different degrees. Senior consultant of the study, Anders Holmlund, D.D.S., Ph.D. Centre for Research and Development of the County Council of Gävleborg in Sweden, studied about 8,000 people with periodontal disease and found the following:

* People with fewer than 21 teeth has 69% higher risk of heart attack compared to those with the most teeth
* People with the least amount of teeth had a 2.5 increased risk of congestive heart failure compared to those with the most teeth.
* People with highest incidence of gum bleeding had a 2.1 increased risk of stroke compared to those with the lowest incidence.