While it has been established that inflammation in the body (including gums and mouth) plays an important role in the buildup of atherosclerosis, the researcher noted that this is the first study to investigate whether the number of times individuals brush their teeth has any bearing on the risk of developing heart disease.

However, from their data analyzed among more than 11,000 adults who took part in the Scottish Health Survey, in which individuals were asked about lifestyle behaviors such as smoking, physical activity, and oral health routines, including how often they visited the dentist and how often they brushed their teeth (once a day, twice a day, or less than once a day), also collated on family and medical history of heart disease and blood pressure whereas blood samples were taken from a subgroup of participants and tested for CRP and fibrinogen levels, was found that participants who reported less frequent toothbrushing had an increased risk of heart disease compared who brush their teeth twice a day. The increasing level of CRP and fibrinogen also happened among participants who had poor oral hygiene.

In that study, 62% of participants saying that they visited the dentist every 6 months and 71% reported brushing their teeth twice a day.
Those data also gathered from the interviews were linked to hospital admissions and deaths.

Corresponding author, Prof Richard Watt from the University College London, UK, and their researchers say, “to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to show an association between a single-item self-reported measure of toothbrushing and incident cardiovascular disease in a large representative sample of adults without overt cardiovascular disease.”

They added, “our study suggests a possible role of poor oral hygiene in the risk of cardiovascular disease via systemic inflammation. Raised inflammatory and homeostatic responses as well as lipid metabolism disturbance caused by periodontal infection might be possible pathways underlying the observed association between periodontal disease and the increased risk for cardiovascular disease.”

However, the researcher also noted that further studies are needed to confirm whether the observed association between oral health behavior and cardiovascular disease is in fact causal or merely a risk marker.