Does anybody believe that dental hygiene has an effect on overall health?

[gbb]

For the last 20+yrs we have known that a bug found in neglected gums also affect heart health.

I remember hearing years ago that poor dental hygeine could cause heart problems, at the time i thought...whaaa...what a load of codswallop (knee jerk reaction)
My younger brother never really looked after his teeth...what did he get ?..a heart condition that required a pacemaker from the age of around 40...and that saw him off at 45 bless him.
Tenuous link perhaps, but heart problems dont figure in either of our parents families..going back some generations.

 

[subaqua]

you need good teeth to eat the food you need to provide the energy to ride. so yes i suppose .

 

[Littgull]

I'm extremely fastidious about dental hygiene and I'm also in pretty good health. No definite link, of course, because I'm also the right weight, I eat carefully and I keep fit. Most would agree that a person who cares for their teeth will also care for their body.

But.... I can't help thinking that with bad dental hygiene you'll have a mouth full of bacteria, some of which you will swallow - we're talking about rotting food here. Okay, the stomach acid deals with those but I wonder how much that cocktail of bacteria can affect overall health? Is poor dental hygiene actually contributing to many of the illnesses we suffer for no apparent reason? How long will it be before somebody actually sets up a study and discovers there's a link?

Thoughts?

In support of the OP's initial proposition I'm sure I read somewhere that in m dieval times the majority of peasant deaths were due to dental decay caused primarily by a malnutritious diet that included a high volume of 'poor quality' ale.

 

[midlife]

True, there us a link between poor dental health and heart disease and low birth weight babies. There us a stronger link between dental health and poverty.

There is a link between poverty and early death so the stats are a little tricky.

Shaun

 

[vickster]

I think there's quite a strong correlation between life and death too

 

[TheDoctor]

Dental hygiene certainly has an effect on your chances of getting a sh@g.
As does personal hygiene, I suppose...

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

I think there's quite a strong correlation between life and death too

That's quite a tenuous link to be fair.

 

[ayceejay]

Both my parents had all their teeth pulled and replaced with false ones - a common practice back then as a precaution against further problems. Incidentally British oral health is an ongoing joke on this side among Americans who fetishize the whole piano key shtick. I have friends who have spent more than $20,000 on dentistry.

 

[compo]

I once had a root canal treatment. The dentist neglected to treat the infection first so the pain killing injections didn't work very well. In effect I had a root treatment with no anaesthetic. Now, over the years I have lost all my upper teeth and a fair few lower ones. On Wednesday coming I am losing yet another lower tooth to root infection. I brush my teeth 2x daily and eat OK, rarely eat things too sugary or drink fizzy drinks. I believe that dental health is just like the rest of the body, a large portion of luck regardless of the care you take. Some people suffer with teeth others swan through life with no problems.

 

[Studley]

I've seen far too many celebs and TV presenters like Andrew Neil to believe that everyone with nice looking teeth looks after their body. Those 'merkin veneers hide a plethora of imperfections.
As for dental bacteria causing us ill-health, well, imho it'd have to be a massive infection for this to happen. We all eat a ton of sh*t in our lifetime, so long as you don't eat it all at once, you'll live.

 

[Citius]

I forgot to clean my teeth one night - and the next morning I fell down the stairs. So there is defintely a correlation between dental hygeine and good general health.

 

[BrumJim]

I understand too that there is a direct correlation between gum disease and heart disease. As in the disease in the gums gets into the blood stream and then goes off to the heart.

 

[tyred]

I'm not overly keen on dentists and had voided seeing one from childhood until my early thirties when I couldn't stand the toothache any longer as it kept getting worse. So I reluctantly went along to the dentists, got two fillings done, one went very deep and was borderline needing root canal treatment doing but she said she'd try the easy way first and so far so good and it wasn't that bad really, although expensive but I've kept up the six-monthly checkups to avoid potential future problems if I can.

I'm not sure if it really will extend my life but I feel better and really, dentists aren't anything to be scared off

As an added bonus, when I went for my checkup before Christmas, she looked into my mouth for about two seconds before asking me if I'd stopped smoking. I said yes, how did you know? She said it's because my gums are so much healthier now that circulation is returning to normal.
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