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I recently had a stroke of great good fortune. After years on a waiting list, I have secured a place as an NHS patient at my local dentist.
This comes after a large body of previous research has found links between dental health and broader physical health.
When people don’t brush their teeth well enough, there is a build-up of plaque – a sticky film on the teeth composed of bacteria and compounds from food.
But plaque and tartar also have more serious consequences, in that the permanent presence of bacteria on teeth can progress to inflammation of the gums known as gum disease, or gingivitis.
Gingivitis is bad enough, as gums become red and sore, and are prone to bleeding. But over the past three decades, multiple studies have linked various hallmarks of gum disease with a higher incidence of conditions ranging from strokes and heart attacks to cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
Using an existing study of connections between lifestyle habits and cardiovascular health in more than 6,000 Americans, researchers found that flossing at least once weekly or more was linked with a 25 per cent lower risk of ischaemic stroke (the most common kind) over 20 years. The work is due to be presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles next week.
Inflammation cascade
What could be the mechanism for the effects of gum disease on the rest of the body? There are two main theories. The first is that inflammation of the gums leads to a body-wide form of inflammation, where there is permanent low-level activity of the immune system.
The second theory is that the breaks in gum tissue let bacteria get into the blood, letting them colonise other sites in the body, such as heart valves or even the brain. Or both inflammation and bacterial escape could be happening, said Dr Angela Nobbs, a microbiologist at the University of Bristol.
It could be that something else is causing both gum disease and the medical condition – for instance, smokers are more likely to have both bad teeth and heart attacks.
So far only one such pilot study has been done and it included too few people to give us any reliable conclusions.
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Much previous work has linked higher levels of CRP with higher rates of multiple medical conditions – including heart attacks, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
“If somebody flossed once a week, that was enough to reduce it, but as they increased the frequency to twice or three times, it had a ‘dose-response’ effect. That was very intriguing, because whenever there’s a dose response curve, it usually indicates that the intervention itself has an effect.”
Yet even without such evidence, it is still worth doing your very best with your dental hygiene, said Dr Nobbs. After all, if the theory turns out to be wrong, what’s the worst that could happen?
Imagine you start developing symptoms of dementia – memory lapses and losing your train of thought in conversations. You might make major changes to your life, even quit your job.
I’ve been reading
I have been enjoying The Last Devil to Die, Richard Osman’s latest installment in his “Thursday Murder Club” series, about a group of elderly amateur detectives who encounter a Midsomer Murders level of homicides in their locale.
I was sceptical that Osman would be able to produce another book in this series without it feeling repetitive and predictable. But the author has pulled it off with his usual panache and style.
This is Everyday Science with Clare Wilson, a subscriber-only newsletter from The i Paper. If you’d like to get this direct to your inbox, every single week, you can sign up here.
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