Boston University researchers say they've shown conclusively that periodontal disease is a risk factor for coronary heart disease in men less than 60 years of age independent of established cardiovascular risk factors in a study release recently in Circulation, a publication of the American Heart Association.
"This is the first study to find a significant association between chronic periodontitis and the risk of coronary heart disease, even after adjusting for important confounding factors," said Dr. Thomas Dietrich, one of the study's authors and an associate professor in the department of health policy and health services research at Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine.
Researchers took into account factors including age, body mass index, smoking, alcohol intake, cholesterol and blood pressure in 1,203 men in the Veterans Administration Normative Aging and Dental Longitudinal Studies. The men received comprehensive medical and dental examinations every 3 years for up to 35 years.
Full text of the study, "Age-Dependent Associations Between Chronic Periodontitis/Edentulism and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease," can be found online at circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/117/13/1668.
The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Source: Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine
