Is gum disease as strong a risk factor for heart attack as smoking?
Gum disease is often a chronic, painless condition that gives off few warning signals. You may notice bleeding gums when your brush or floss vigorously. The bacteria which develop in the pockets around the teeth by the billions, can cause serious health problems. Recent research has shown an increase in clotting of the blood when one of the most common of these bacterial species enters the bloodstream. In the study on rabbits, electrocardiograms showed the clotting of blood was bad enough to slow the flow of blood through the coronary arteries, depriving the heart of all the oxygen it needed. Large studies indicate that those with gum disease have twice the usual risk of dying prematurely from heart disease.
