Professional Dental Cleaning May Help Decrease Heart Disease

If you stick to a strict schedule of semi-annual dental appointments for cleanings and checkups, you’ll enjoy a number of oral health benefits, like reducing your risk of gum disease and tooth loss. You’ll also be taking an important step to maintain your smile’s appearance.

You may not realize that these routine visits with your dentist may also help you to prevent heart disease. A recent study by researchers found that people who got cleanings twice a year over a two-year period cut their risk of a heart attack by nearly 25 percent in comparison to patients who didn’t get cleanings or went to the dentist only once over that same time frame.

Those findings align with the results of previous studies looking at the same factors, although it’s important to note that the researchers in this study were unable to control for other influences, like smoking and obesity, which also contribute to heart disease.

Although exploration of the mechanism behind this phenomenon is ongoing, it is believed that the same bacteria that cause gum disease can travel elsewhere in the body and wreak havoc in various organs and systems. In the case of cardiovascular disease, the bacteria that attack the gums can also cause inflammation in the tissues of the heart and other structures involved in the cardiovascular system.

Because plaque and tartar harbor that bacteria, it’s important to clear those substances from the mouth periodically. It’s impossible to eliminate those substances entirely through brushing and flossing alone, so professional cleanings are a must in your oral health care regimen.

Of course, routine cleanings also have a major impact on your oral health. Cutting your risk of gum disease reduces your chances of tooth and bone loss, which can have both cosmetic and functional consequences.

Has it been a while since your last trip to the dental office? Contact our team of DFW dentists to schedule a cleaning soon to protect not only your mouth but possibly your heart as well.