Brush and Floss to Keep Your Heart Healthy

It’s easy to connect obesity and unhealthy eating habits with heart health risks, but what about gum disease? As it turns out, there is a close link between a person’s oral health and heart health. Grab your toothbrush and floss, because it could save your life.

Oral Hygiene and Heart Health

Simply put, if your mouth is unhealthy, your heart might be too. Research is still in the works, but here is what we do know.  The gums inside of the mouth are vascular, which means they are full of blood vessels, and the mouth itself is filled with bacteria. When unhealthy gums become inflamed, the dangerous bacteria in the mouth can seep into the bloodstream and travel anywhere within the body, creating more inflammation as they go. This is incredibly dangerous, especially to the heart.

The heart is already at risk of inflammation of its own from a condition known as atherosclerosis, which makes it difficult for blood to flow to the heart. Atherosclerosis dramatically increases a person’s risk for heart attack and stroke. When the inflammation of atherosclerosis combines with the inflammation and roaming bacteria caused by poor oral hygiene and gum disease, the results could prove fatal.

Treating Gum Disease and Protecting the Heart

Gum disease is a scary thing, especially considering its potential impacts on the heart, but the good news is that processes of root planing and scaling can treat gum disease before it becomes too severe.

Root scaling and planing are two procedures that remove plaque and tartar from the teeth and gums. During root scaling, a dentist will numb the gums and tooth roots using a local anesthesia, then utilize special ultrasonic tools to remove the hard deposits of plaque and tartar from the teeth above and below the gum line. When used in conjunction with brushing, flossing, and mouth washing twice per day, root scaling and planing can restore gums to their full health once again. Once your oral health is in check, your heart can recover as well.