Periodontitis And Myocardial Infarction: A Shared Genetic Pr

ORAL-BODY INFLAMMATORY CONNECTION
The connection between dental disease and cardiac disease has been recently documented. In 2005, after studying the relationship between periodontal bacteria and atherosclerosis (narrowing of the carotid arteries), Desvarieux et al² reported that periodontal disease can contribute to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and can be a major risk for death. He also showed that chronic periodontal disease may be a possible cause of CVD.
A paper published in 2010 in the British Medical Journal³ correlated tooth brushing, inflammation, and the risk of CVD from a Scottish Health Survey. Close to 12,000 participants, both men and women, with a mean age of 50 years, were studied. Oral hygiene was assessed from the self-reported frequency of tooth brushing. The reported poor oral hygiene was associated with a higher risk of low-grade inflammation and higher levels of CVD.
Because of the oral-body inflammatory connection (OBIC), clinical treatment studies have been performed to evaluate the effect that treatment of periodontal disease has on the degree of heart disease present. In April 2009, Piconi et al⁴ published a study showing that the treatment of periodontal disease reduced the narrowing of the carotid artery and resulted in an improvement in the atherosclerosis.
Slepian and Gottehrer5 in 2009 described the OBIC and discussed many of the inflammatory enzymes as being involved in patients with CVD. This has finally led to an understanding of how periodontal disease develops and progresses, leading to technology which now allows the disease to be stabilized and controlled. The following year, they authored a guide entitled Evaluation and Management of the Oral Body Inflammatory Connection Resource Guide. (This guide was published as a courtesy for all the practicing dentists in the United States by Chase Health Advance Financing Options.) It describes in detail both this critical connection and the effective, nonsurgical management of periodontal disease.
In September 2010, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Oral Health completed a National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES) published in the Journal of Dental Research,⁶ which found gum disease to be a significant health concern. NHANES has historically been the main source for determining the status of periodontal disease in the US adult population. Comprehensive periodontal exams were conducted on more than 450 adult patients over the age of 35 years. The prevalence rates were compared against previous NHANES studies, which only used a partial mouth periodontal exam. The previous studies had shown prevalence of both gingivitis and periodontitis as high as 56% in adults. The present study found that the original methodology may have understated the disease prevalence by up to 50%. These figures could easily be interpreted to represent periodontal disease as the most common disease present in the body today.