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Invasive Dental Surgery Increases Cardiovascular Disease Risk! Cardiovascular disease refers to disease that involves heart or blood vessels (arteries and veins). According to British Heart Foundation, cardiovascular disease (also known as heart and circulatory disease) includes conditions such as coronary heart disease (angina and heart attack) and stroke. Dental surgery, on the other hand, is any medical procedure that involves artificially modifying dentition, in other words, surgery of the teeth and jawbones. So, how would these two seemingly un-related things be related? A paper published on October 19, 2010 in the Journal “Annals of Internal Medicine” reported that an individual who undergoes dental surgery has a higher risk of developing a heart attack or stroke for a few weeks after the procedure, and the risk would simply disappear 6 months later. British researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who conducted the study, cited inflammation as the link. When bacteria enters the bloodstream from an infection around the area of a tooth (periodontal infection), it may then build up in the blood vessels, causing inflammation that could raise the risk of stroke or heart attack.
Though the study is not the first to relate oral health to heart disease, it should be the first to look into the short-term risk of dental procedures and acute inflammation. The findings definitely provide more compelling evidence linking acute inflammation to cardiovascular disease. Data was gathered from the United States Medicaid claims database involving 32,060 adults who had had a stroke or heart attack. The medical histories of these adults were traced back to determine how many had undergone invasive dental surgery. Results showed that 525 individuals had had a heart attack and 650 had had a stroke, all of them after dental surgery. Variables, such as hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, coronary artery disease, or individuals with prescriptions for antiplatelet or salicylate drugs before treatment, that might on their own or in combination raise stroke and heart attack risk, were all taken into account. Those who were given invasive dental surgery had an increased risk for heart attack or stroke in the first 4 weeks after their surgery. However, the risk was transient and would gradually subside to normal after about 6 months. It was also found that more than 50 percent of the heart attack and strokes occurred in women, and about 30 percent in people who were younger than 50 years old. Not all have found the new findings convincing. Some experts believe the link between inflammation markers and atherosclerosis is tenuous and the new findings could hardly provide enough data to associate cardiovascular event with inflammation. As such, further research is needed to ascertain the link. Meanwhile, the study also had a serious limitation: the data collected did not have details on patients’ aspirin therapy or cessation before their dental surgery. Many people take low-dose aspirin every day to prevent getting into cardiovascular events. It has been known that some dentists do advise their patients to stop taking aspirin because it increases bleeding risk. Stopping aspirin could, however, trigger for heart attack or stroke. The new findings will undoubtedly create fear for some people, who would consider or stop seeing their dentist because of the possible cardiovascular risk. While invasive dental treatment or procedure might indeed trigger a transient increase in the risk for cardiovascular events, the absolute risks are in fact minimal. As pointed out by the researchers, the enduring benefits of dental treatment are far greater than the temporary risk of cardiovascular events. In fact, periodontal disease treatment may in the long-term lower cardiovascular risk. Therefore, it is definitely not advisable for people to skip dentist simply because of the possible risk of cardiovascular events. As argued by the researchers, the study supported the fact that people should see their dentists regularly and take care of their oral health so that they would not be at risk of coronary heart disease.
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