Created 30/10/2015
Updated 12/15/2023
In short, good oral care helps us to prevent not only cavities but also serious gum infections and even cardiovascular diseases.
We are facing a relationship that few people know about: a very close link between poor oral health and heart disease.
Did you imagine that an inflammation of the gums or a simple cavity could also trigger a complication with the coronary arteries, releasing bacteria into them and making you abruptly ill?
We are pretty sure that by now you are wondering how is it possible that there is a link between oral health and heart disease?
Well, we are going to go deeper into this topic as we believe that not having proper dental hygiene and care can trigger much more serious health problems that we are trying to avoid at all costs. Taking care of your teeth will take care of your heart
Sick teeth + sick gums = heart in danger.
Among gum diseases, there are some of an infectious and inflammatory nature, such as periodontitis. When these diseases progress without being attended by your dentist, they begin to release infectious substances and bacteria that can reach the blood vessels of the coronary arteries – yes, exactly, the ones that go to the heart – this causes these arteries to thicken, obstructing the passage of blood and consequently causing a heart attack to the patient.
Similarly, the presence of cavities in teeth and molars represents an accumulation of bacteria in the mouth, the same that travel to the intestine, stomach, esophagus (which can cause infections and severe pain) and of course in the most serious case can make their transit to the bloodstream through the typical perforation that causes cavities in teeth.
The relationship between diseased teeth and gums and your cardiovascular health is close, even when you are going to undergo surgery, you fill out a questionnaire beforehand where you are asked about your oral health in order to avoid complications. Oral health and heart disease are related.
It is part of the medical and hospital protocols in any part of the world, that every patient who is going to undergo a surgical procedure must have his teeth cleaned or be controlled if he suffers from any periodontal and/or gum disease.
Poor oral health causes an alarming increase in cardiovascular diseases, heart attacks and angina pectoris are among the leading causes of death worldwide; perhaps not all of them are related to dental hygiene, but certainly some of them are. It is a priority to consider gum and dental diseases as a public health problem in order to have the impact and treatment required.
Strategies for action against gum and tooth diseases
To avoid suffering cardiac complications related to gum and teeth diseases, we must start from three aspects:
- When we check our gums and notice that they are sore, swollen, bleeding and secrete bad odor, it is an alarm signal to go immediately to our dental clinic. The doctor will have to evaluate our health and with that diagnose the problem that we have which can go from a
gingivitis
to a more severe periodontal complication. Likewise, if you are having problems with cavities, you should seek treatment immediately. The longer you take to take care of the disease, the more likely it is that there will be some complication with your coronary arteries.
For the last 7 years in IMOI dental clinics we have been performing a saliva analysis test of the patient’s saliva. With this test we can determine if a person has especially dangerous bacteria in his mouth, in what quantity and what antibiotic we can give him to eliminate the bacteria definitively. This is the only way to cure periodontal disease and decrease the incidence of cardiovascular disease.
- Similarly, in the presence of cavities, these should be treated as soon as possible to prevent them from wearing down the teeth, the accumulation of bacteria from proliferating and from reaching the bloodstream.
- In the case of dentists, they have the obligation to let the patient with gum problems and caries problems know that there may be major complications if they are not attended to in a timely manner. They are a group potentially prone to heart disease. Raising awareness is paramount to attacking this problem.
Those who already have cardiovascular problems due to these complications of diseased gums and decayed teeth should be treated immediately or, failing that, they should enter what dentists call the periodic maintenance phase, where they check for further oral complications.
In the event that you have a periodontitis problem and obviously do not wish to have coronary heart disease, you require dental care that will allow you to stop the destructive inflammatory process caused by infectious diseases.
However, we always recommend the preventive phase to control the progression of oral disease and thus significantly reduce any risk in the binomial between gum disease and heart disease or, in other words, oral health and heart disease.
Warning signs
There are certain signs that the patient can detect and see as a voice of alert and alarm so that they do not lead to major complications and we are going to point them out below:
- Teeth longer than normal.
- Pain when drinking hot or cold beverages.
- Pain when eating foods with a lot of sugar.
- Inflammation of the gums
- Bleeding gums
- Tooth loss in adults between 45 and 60 years of age
- You have mobility in your teeth
This type of disease is a consequence of poor care of the gums and teeth over the years, a process that gradually affects the periodontium to the point of contaminating the blood flow and coronary arteries.
Therefore, it is unlikely that young people can develop cardiovascular disease as a result of having diseased gums, but of course it is vitally important to encourage dental hygiene in children as well as continuous visits to their dental clinic.
All the technologies are now available for detecting gum disease In this case, a visit to the dentist in time can prevent the disease from reaching a destructive and irreversible phase that can cause further damage to the body, in this case cardiovascular diseases.
At IMOI Barcelona and IMOI Ibiza, we follow editorial principles that guarantee the authenticity of all the information we disseminate. If you are interested in learning more about how we ensure that our content is always up-to-date and accurately supported, we invite you to review our editorial commitment.
This article has been supervised by Dr. Ferran Novell Costa and Dra. Erjona Demiraj, specialists in Dental Health and Dental Aesthetics treatments. Responsible for the treatments provided at IMOI Barcelona and IMOI Ibiza and for the supervision and/or updating of the contents of this blog entry. (7/11/2023). The recommendations described are not generic and do not replace the diagnosis and evaluation of a professional in a dental office. If you want us to clarify any aspect or you want a personalized diagnosis and advice we recommend you to come to our dental clinics.
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