How Is Oral Health Linked With Cardiac Health?

February 6, 2022

Ask any dentist and they’ll tell you the mouth is a great indicator of a person’s health. Many illnesses begin in the mouth; therefore it’s rarely a surprise that our oral health can impact other parts of our bodies. Many people ask their dentists whether ‘bad teeth’ and heart disease go hand in hand. When people talk about ‘bad teeth’ we are often referring to poor dental hygiene, this is something that can cause other health issues.

Although there are some suspected links between teeth and heart health, we are researching this further to see if we can make more definite links to the condition of teeth causing heart problems and many other conditions around the body.

In this blog, we are going to cover all we know about teeth and heart health.

As mentioned earlier, the connection between teeth and heart health is not yet understood to be causational. It is noted that the correlation between poor oral hygiene and heart disease appears often, but what are the theories behind this?

1. The most important factor for this is lifestyle factors such as smoking. Although the correlation between heart disease and poor oral health is noticeable it is far less when compared to the correlation between smoking and heart disease. This may suggest that smoking is a habit that can lead to both conditions and therefore this is why this link between poor dental hygiene and heart disease is often spotted.
2. The second proposed idea is that the bacteria found to infect gums and cause gum disease and gingivitis can also travel in the blood vessels. It is hypothesized that these bacteria could result in inflammation of the blood vessels or even tiny little blood clots. This is still not a fully proven idea with some flaws in the theory. However, it’s not totally without reason as some conditions like rheumatic fever do require antibiotics before dental treatment due to the risk of bacterial infection.

We touched briefly on rheumatic fever earlier, but let’s find out a little more on this subject.
Rheumatic fever is not a common condition, but it is a complication that can occur after having untreated and severe strep throat or other bacterial throat infections. It can cause heart problems and painful joints.

Having a rheumatic fever can cause damage to the heart valves. Whenever someone with a history of rheumatic fever has an intrusive dental procedure a dentist will prescribe antibiotics prior. This is to stop any infection or bacteria travelling from the mouth to the heart via the bloodstream.

For those who have suffered from rheumatic fever, it is strongly advised they visit the hygienist and dentist for regular checks and cleans!

Whilst we are unsure whether the link between dental hygiene and heart disease is direct or not, we very much want to promote good health starting within the mouth. We hope that further studies will show us the full impact poor oral health can have, but until then we are left with suggestive theories.