Periodontal disease is now considered a complex oral and systemic disease that needs to be addressed by an integrative coordinated care team that includes both dental and medical professionals. Oral-systemic health (OSH) has become a movement.
The research is exploding. Just over the last year, research has found:
- It appears up to 50% of heart attacks are triggered by oral pathogens.
- Addressing visual and microbial periodontal disease slows if not reverses CIMT progression.
- Six oral spirochetes appear to be causal of Alzheimer’s.
- P. gingivalis, an oral bacterium, raises risk for a heart attack by 13.6 times when present — that’s twice the risk of a heavy smoker!
- Periodontal disease is as big a risk as high blood pressure for strokes.
Over the last six years, a lot has changed…