Chinese language - Tooth loss linked to higher heart disease risk

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WORLD / Health

Tooth loss linked to higher heart disease risk

(Reuters Health)
Updated: 2007-09-07 04:55

NEW YORK - Young adults who lose their teeth to cavities or gum disease
may have an increased risk of dying from heart disease later in life, a
new study suggests.

The findings, reported in the journal Heart, add to evidence linking oral
health to heart health. A number of studies have suggested that gum
disease may contribute to heart disease over time -- though it's still
not clear that there is a cause-and-effect relationship.

This latest study involved more than 12,000 UK adults who were followed
from college onward, for up to 57 years. Researchers found that those
with a large number of missing teeth in young adulthood -- nine or more
-- were one-third more likely to die of heart disease than their peers
with fewer than five missing teeth.

The link remained when the researchers considered factors such as
socioeconomic background and smoking, which harms both the teeth and gums
and the heart.

Tooth loss is an indicator of poor oral health. Scientists speculate that
the bacteria in the mouth that cause cavities and gum disease may enter
the bloodstream and either damage the blood vessel lining directly or
trigger inflammation in the body that then contributes to heart disease.

The current findings do not prove that this is the case, according to the
study authors, led by Dr. Yu-Kang Tu of the University of Leeds. But they
do support a relationship between tooth loss and cardiovascular disease,
Tu told Reuters Health. Unlike most other studies in this area, the
researcher noted, this one looked at oral health early in life rather
than in old age.

"Our study adds to the evidence that chronic infection -- oral or
elsewhere in the (body) -- may increase the risk of cardiovascular
diseases," Tu said.

The findings are based on 12,631 men and women who had medical and dental
exams as college students in the 1940s through 1960s. They were then
traced through the UK National Health Service until 2005, during which
time 1,432 died.

Overall, men and women with the most severe tooth loss as college
students were 35 percent more likely to have died from heart disease than
those with four or fewer missing teeth.

It's too soon to say that good oral hygiene will lower anyone's risk of
heart disease, according to Tu -- particularly since this risk depends on
multiple lifestyle and genetic factors. But, Tu added, it also won't hurt
people to take better care of their teeth.

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