It seems that taking care of your teeth and gums means more than just pretty teeth. Recently, researchers have recently found a link between oral hygiene and a reduction in heart infections.
The study, which focused on daily dental activities, was to find out whether daily brushing and related dental care was as likely to cause
Infective endocarditis (IE) as oral surgery procedures.
Nearly 300 dental patients were asked to perform their daily dental activities and tooth removal appointments and researchers measured the levels of
Bacteria released into the bloodstream with the use of
Antibiotics and without.
After the tests, 23% of the tooth brushing group showed signs of infective endocarditis in the blood compared to 33% of tooth removals with antibiotics and 60% of tooth removals without antibiotics. The closeness of the results was surprising to researchers.
While researchers understand that the daily brushing may put patients at higher risk of infective endocarditis over time due to the volume to times the teeth are brushed during the year, they assured patients that unless the heart is at risk for infective endocarditis there should be little or no concern.
Additionally, stopping daily dental activities and dental procedures increased the bacteria in the mouth and can thus lead to increased chance of contracting a heart
Infection.
