Gum Disease Linked to Heart Disease

People below the age of 60 who have lost bone as a result of periodontal disease have an increased risk of heart disease, found a Danish study.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen studied 110 patients with coronary heart disease and 140 people without coronary heart disease. The mean age was 65 years, and 70 percent of the participants were male. All 250 participants received a medical and dental examination.

This study is distinctive because to our knowledge, it is the first to include both the alveolar bone loss and full mouth recording of clinical attachment loss as measurements of periodontal disease, explains Dr. Karen Geismar of the School of Dentistry at the University of Copenhagen. Alveolar bone loss was recently found to be the periodontal variable that had the strongest association to coronary heart disease.

The findings are published in the Journal of Periodontology.