Periodontal disease and risk of subsequent cardiovascular disease in U.S. male physicians

Examining the link between coronary heart disease and the elimination of chronic dental infections

BACKGROUND

While it has been suggested that periodontal disease may be associated with coronary heart disease, or CHD, there are no data to suggest that the elimination of chronic dental infections actually lowers the risk of developing chronic CHD. The goal of this study was to determine whether people with a definitive elimination of all potential dental infections--edentulous people, who are at the optimum endpoint of dental infection elimination from a CHD perspective--lower their CHD risk over time when compared with people who have a specific dental infection, periodontitis.

METHODS

The authors examined data from a prospective cohort of 4,027 people who participated in the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES I, Epidemiologic Follow-up Study. The primary outcome measure was the first CHD event.

RESULTS

During a mean follow-up of 17 years, there were 1,238 CHD events (538 fatal). The confirmed elimination of chronic dental infections did not lead to a decreased risk of experiencing a CHD event (relative risk, 1.02; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.86-1.21). The CHD risk among people with and without chronic dental infections remained constant over time with respect to each other (test for increasing or decreasing trend over time: not significant, chi2(1) = 0.48; P = .93).

CONCLUSIONS

People who had a complete, definitive and long-term elimination of all potential dental infections through extraction of all teeth did not have lower CHD risk when compared with people with diagnosed periodontitis.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Until evidence is found to the contrary, the authors suggest that prevention of CHD should not be used as the basis for recommending treatment to eliminate chronic dental infections.