Dental care may be linked to heart health in older women, a study suggests.
The study, published in the journal Health Economics, found that older women who receive regular dental care are approximately one-third less likely to suffer from heart disease than those who do not. The results were obtained by looked at the medical records of almost 7,000 people ages 44 to 88.
The same finding was not true for men, whose heart health was not influenced one way or another by dental care.
"We think the findings reflect differences in how men and women develop cardiovascular disease," said Dr. Stephen Brown of the University of California at Berkeley, one of the study’s authors, in a news release, as quoted by HealthDay. "Other studies suggest that estrogen has a protective effect against heart disease because it helps prevent the development of atherosclerosis. It's not until women hit menopause, around age 50 to 55, that they start catching up with men."
According to Dr. Maria Emanuel Ryan, a professor of oral biology and pathology at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, N.Y., there is a particular connection between gum disease and heart disease.
HealthDay quotes Ryan as saying that research has shown chronic inflammation to cause heart disease, and gum disease “is the most common chronic inflammatory condition in the world.”
