Data analysis of patients with public health insurance in Taiwan has backed up the claim that oral health and heart disease might be associated later in life. People over the age of 50 who had received at least one tooth scaling showed slightly lower incidence of myocardial infarction, other cardiovascular events and strokes than those who had received none, according to a research paper published in the American Journal of Medicine.
In the study, which took seven years to complete, the records of more than 22,000 patients selected from the country’s National Health Insurance Research Database were analysed. According to the researchers at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital and National Yang-Ming University’s Cardiovascular Research Center, the results made public this month revealed less heart disease in those people who had had their teeth cleaned.
The incidence of stroke was 1.1 per cent higher among those whose teeth had not been cleaned, and acute myocardial infarction occurred in only 0.6 per cent more people who had not undergone tooth scaling.
Lead researcher Dr Zu-Yin Chen told Reuters Health in London that the results, although convincing, did not prove that better oral hygiene can lower the risk of heart disease but that dental problems like gum disease most likely increase the risk of these conditions.
Chen said that the new study followed research that suggested that there might be a link between heart disease and oral health.
The association itself and the way in which bacterial inflammation in the mouth contributes to heart disease is still highly debated in the dental community.
