Gum Disease can Increase the Liklihood of a Heart Attack
If you experience any form of gum disease, call the Houston Medical Center Dental Group Immediately and schedule a full dental examination.
Gum disease has been connected to heart disease. This is because the bacteria that cause gum disease get into the blood and travel throughout the body. The cardiovascular system can be especially vulnerable to these bacteria, and gum disease has been proven to cause heart attacks in a number of people.
The number of bacteria in your mouth can easily total more than the number of people in the world. Even if you have no plaque or tartar, 1,000 to 100,000 can be found on any one particular tooth. Mind you, this is in a mouth with clean and healthy teeth. If you have plaque, there can be as many as 100 million to 1 billion bacteria growing on each tooth.
While some of these bacteria are good for your mouth, others are very harmful. The type of bacteria that cause gum disease not only permanently damage gum tissue, but also can damage your jaws and the connective tissues that hold your teeth to your jaws. Once connective tissue weakens, you are more likely to lose teeth.
Even worse, statistics conducted over a ten-year period determined that patients who suffer from gum disease are three times more likely to suffer a heart attack as are patients without it. Evidence strongly indicates that these infectious bacteria enter the blood through tears in gum tissue. After these bacteria reach the liver, the liver reacts by producing a protein that clogs the arteries.
Other research shows that gum disease bacteria directly attacks the heart itself by creating blockages in the arteries. This theory is strongly upheld by the discovery of oral bacteria lodged in the arteries of people who previously experienced blocked arteries and a subsequent heart attack.
People with heart valve ailments should be especially mindful and proactive in seeking out dental treatment for gum disease. Conditions such as mitral valve prolapse, rheumatic heart disease, congenital heart defects, and heart murmurs are all very vulnerable to infection by oral bacteria.
Also, in addition to increased risk of heart attack, a rare and sometimes fatal disease known as endocarditis can be caused by S.Sanguis—the bacteria found in plaque—and cause severe damage to heart tissues and valve muscles.
If you suffer from any type of heart valve ailment, it is strongly recommended that you talk to your dentist about it before having any type of dental procedure performed. It may be necessary for your dentist to prescribe special antibiotics as a precaution against oral bacteria that could potentially be dislodged into the bloodstream and travel directly to your heart.
Labels: Gum Disease, heart attacks, oral bacteria, periodontal disease, plaque
posted by Dental Expert at
1:47 PM
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