Bad Teeth Pose Heart Disease Risk in Younger Men, Study Shows

Members of the Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine (BUGSDM) Department of Health Policy and Health Services Research, Associate Professor Dr. Thomas Dietrich, Research Coordinator Monik Jimenez, Professor Dr. Elizabeth Krall Kaye, Pantel S. Vokonas, and Professor and Chair Dr. Raul Garcia, show conclusively periodontal disease is a risk factor for coronary heart disease in men less than 60 years-old independent of established cardiovascular risk factors in a study released today in Circulation, a publication of the American Heart Association.

"This is the first study to find a significant association between chronic periodontitis and the risk of coronary heart disease, even after adjusting for important confounding factors,” said Dr. Krall Kaye.

Researchers took into account factors including age, body mass index, smoking, alcohol intake, cholesterol, and blood pressure in 1,203 men in the Veterans Administration Normative Aging and Dental Longitudinal Studies. The men received comprehensive medical and dental examinations every three years for up to 35 years.

The full text of the study, “Age-Dependent Associations between Chronic Periodontitis/Edentulism and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease,” is available online at http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/117/13/1668.

The research was supported by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

"With the state of today’s healthcare, it is vital that the links between chronic periodontitis and other health conditions be taken seriously," said Dean ad interim Dr. Jeffrey Hutter. "The members of the Department of Health Policy and Health Services Research who worked on this study, should be proud of their work and hopefully their findings will encourage those at risk to take the steps necessary to treat their conditions."