Link Between Oral Health and Heart Health

Oral health is important for your overall health! Many people are living with gum disease and don't even know it! Often patients feel fine as gum disease is not painful and they avoid going to the dentist.

Today, I am going to discuss how your oral health can affect your heart health.

Studies have found people with gum disease in moderate to advanced stages are at a greater risk for heart disease than someone with healthy gums. The spread of bacteria is what links oral health and heart disease. The bacteria in your mouth travels from your mouth to other parts of your body through the blood stream. When the bacteria from your mouth travels through the blood stream it attaches to areas of the heart causing inflammation. Endocarditis is an infection of the inner lining of the heart, this can occur from the bacteria in your mouth traveling to the heart.

People with chronic gingivitis and periodontal disease (gum disease) have a high risk for heart disease caused from poor oral health. Especially if the oral health condition is unmanaged.

What to look for in your mouth to help determine if you have gum disease:

Dental Health for Seniors

Today, life expectancy is longer than ever before.  Many of us can expect to live active and vibrant lives well into our golden years.  Through exercise and healthy living our bodies are able to help us continue to enjoy many of the activities that we love; although maybe at a slower pace!

As part of your health care team, we at Forman Dental do our best to make sure your teeth and mouth can keep pace with your active lifestyle and not slow you down or get in the way. 

By far, the most successful approach to ensure your teeth and mouth can keep up with your active lifestyle as you get older is 1) great home care with brushing and flossing  2) Maintain you professional hygiene appointments - 3 to 4 month intervals is ideal 3) Use a grinding appliance if recommended 4) Be aware of how your medications can affect your mouth – individual recommendations will be helpful in many cases.

Many of our patients avoid having dental work done while they are younger for reasons of cost and time or are not motivated because many significant changes occur slowly over time and do not hurt, only to find that problems become magnified with age.  Often at an older age it
is difficult medically to have certain treatments or physically it is tough to be in the dental chair for extended time periods.  Some patients will even reason that “I am too old to spend the money because I won’t be around long enough”.  As a result, rather than being active and vibrant many patients suffer quietly and don’t enjoy life the way they could.  Proper oral function including chewing, talking and smiling are vital for overall health and well-being.  Without good nutrition it is easy to decline at an older age.

Our philosophy at Forman Dental is to encourage our patients to work to make their mouth stable by the time they are 65yrs old.  Our definition of stable is “to require very little dental work, if at all, other than maintenance “.  This is entirely possible but does require some effort and planning.   

If you think it is time to do some long term planning for your mouth please give us a call.  Please also remember if you have an aging parent, sibling or other friend or relative that they may be great at getting to medical appointments while dental care is often forgotten. A great question to ask is when they last had their teeth and gums checked?