The analysis was based on data from 12 published studies, each of which tracked oral health and cardiovascular disease outcomes from the age of 3 to 49 years. “Our results clearly show that tooth loss is not only a dental problem but also a significant predictor of cardiovascular mortality,” says Anita Aminoshariae, an endodontist and dental researcher at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.
People who had lost all or most of their teeth had a 66% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than those who had lost few or no teeth, the analysis found. This correlation was more notable in five studies of people with fewer than 10 remaining teeth than in seven studies of people with no remaining teeth. However, the increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease persisted among people who had lost approximately 22 or more teeth.
All 12 studies made allowance for age and smoking status in their analysis, and 10 of them included at least five critical contributing factors that affect cardiovascular disease risk. After controlling for the effects of these factors, the researchers confirmed that the increased risk persisted demonstrating the impact of severe tooth loss on cardiovascular disease mortality, Aminoshariae and her colleagues wrote in the paper.
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