Vascular Disease Current Topics in Vascular Disease

Are You at Risk for Stroke? Better Count Your Teeth...

Did any results of the study surprise you?
What was surprising is that the association between tooth loss and stroke is actually stronger among nonsmokers than smokers.

What does that mean?
It just makes us confident that the association isn't due to smoking alone.

Why would bacterial infection put people at risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke?
There are several potential reasons that have been proposed. The bacteria itself may go into the bloodstream, which could cause damage to the cells lining the blood vessels, which is one of the first things that could trigger a stroke or cause heart disease.

The other possibility is that toxic proteins from the bacteria stimulate the production of certain inflammatory markers which contribute to developing these problems.

And of course the other consideration is the common risk factors, including common genetic factors. So somebody may just be predisposed to inflammatory disease. Nobody has, as yet, tried to control for genetic factors (when doing this type of study); so there could just be some kind of gene that predisposes you to inflammatory disease, which could lead to heart disease or stroke.

Do these results imply that prevention of periodontal disease and tooth loss will help prevent ischemic stroke?
I would say at this stage we do not know if preventing periodontal disease and tooth loss would actually reduce the risk of stroke or not. But given that we don't know for sure, it doesn't hurt to take better care of your teeth, and do your best to prevent and control periodontal disease and also practice good preventive behavior for cardiovascular health as well.

If it is determined that there is a causal relationship between periodontal disease and stroke, what might change in dental health?
People would have to go for more regular scaling, root planing, and sometimes have medical therapy to control the bacteria; whatever it takes to decrease the disease.

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