Scientific evidence for the relationship between periodontitis and cardiovascular disease

Abstract

A lot of clinical studies have investigated the possible association between periodontitis and coronary heart disease (CHD). Some of them indicate the existence of an epidemiologic association between these two concepts, and support previous investigations that have found that chronic periodontal inflammation, persistent bacterial infection with the presence of major periodontal pathogens, deep periodontal pockets. The number of missing teeth and other periodontal markers, seem to be important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Nevertheless, it will be required to carry out better controlled and larger studies to identify if these biological mechanisms are responsible for these increased risks and to provide a convincing support of a casual association and to determine if periodontal treatments could prevent CHD. Since periodontal disease and cardiovascular disease are common, their association has a significant public health importance. They share common risk factors, such as increasing age, smoking, stress, socioeconomic status and body fat metabolism, and that is the reason why there could be significant bias.

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Rosado, A. , Marcos, H. and Gómez, P. (2013) Scientific evidence for the relationship between periodontitis and cardiovascular disease. World Journal of Cardiovascular Diseases, 3, 62-68. doi: 10.4236/wjcd.2013.34A009.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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