deep teeth and gum cleaning may help prevent another stroke attack, really ah ???
https://shorewoodfamilydentalcare.com/avoid-getting-a-stroke-mouth/
An unhealthy mouth can have a huge impact on your body: you can end up with increased risks of heart disease, hypertension, nutritional deficiencies, and even strokes. A recent study has discovered a link between a particular kind of oral bacteria and your risk of having a stroke.
Strokes And Oral Health: What’s The Connection
It might seem like an odd connection to draw, oral health can help me avoid getting a stroke, but the research speaks for itself. There’s a strain of bacteria called Streptococcus mutans that is present in only about ten percent of people’s mouths, yet is present in around a third of stroke victims.
S. mutans, the researchers argue, is able to make its way to the brain through the bloodstream. Once there it contributes to cerebral hemorrhages, and is responsible for a number of deaths each year.
We’ve known for a while that there was a connection between oral health and strokes: there are remarkably higher rates of oral health complications in stroke victims. What we didn’t know until recently was the connection that S. mutans has, and how it is able to get to the brain: by latching on to red blood cells and then to weakened veins in the brain.
How Oral Health Problems Increase Your Stroke Risk
You may be thinking that bacteria would have a hard time getting into your bloodstream from your mouth. After all, you don’t typically bleed from the mouth! The oral health problems caused by S. mutans, however, are the exact kinds of issues that lead to bleeding and transmission to the veins!
One of the earliest signs of gum disease is puffiness and bleeding in the gums. If you’ve ever noticed blood when you spit out your toothpaste what you’re seeing is the effects of gum disease first hand. If you’re one of the 10 percent of people who have S. mutans in your mouth then you’ve just opened up the perfect passage for it! Bacteria is always seeking out warm dark places to hide – what better places than an open vein?
You may not even notice that oral bacteria is getting into your bloodstream, especially if you have a cavity. Tooth decay that makes its way to the root of a tooth infects the soft dental pulp that lives there. The pulp contains a lot of blood vessels that feed the tooth, and bacteria will have no problem getting into your bloodstream from there.
Prolonged dental problems only raise your risk of stroke, and even other bacterial infections! Preventing this kind of harm requires dedicated and disciplined oral health habits.
How To Minimize Your Risks
Being a carrier of S. mutans is just a risk factor – it isn’t a guarantee that you’ll suffer from a stroke. When it comes to health risk factors of any kind the most important thing is minimizing them as best you can. Thankfully good oral hygiene isn’t that difficult, provided you follow three essential tenets: brush twice a day, floss every night, and have an exam and cleaning every six months.
All three of those practices are essential to good dental health. If you remove even one of them you’re exposing yourself to a lot of risk – oral bacteria accumulates fast! If you don’t keep it in check you’ll soon find yourself overwhelmed by tooth decay, gum disease, and other problems.
No matter how well you take care of your teeth at home you also have to take professional
exams and cleanings seriously. A six month window is the perfect amount of time for us to notice problems at their earliest stages and to remove plaque built up in places that brushing and flossing can’t get. If you never have professional exams and cleanings you’ll end up with complications in spots you can’t see, which makes them even more dangerous!
https://www.webmd.com/oral-health/news/20111116/getting-your-teeth-cleaned-may-help-your-heart
Getting Your Teeth Cleaned May Help Your Heart
Study Shows Professional Teeth Cleaning Is Linked to Lower Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke
By
Charlene Laino
Nov. 16, 2011 (Orlando, Fla.) -- Getting your
teeth cleaned may give you more than a sparkling white smile -- it may give you something to smile about, like your health.
In a large study, people who had their
teeth professionally scaled at least once every two years were 24% less likely to have a
heart attack, compared with those who skipped the hygienist. Scaling cleans between the gums and the
teeth.
And their risk of
stroke dropped by 13%, says study researcher Zu-Yin Chen, MD, a cardiology fellow at the Veterans General Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan.
"Something as simple as having good dental hygiene -- brushing, flossing, and having regular cleanings -- may be good for your
heart and
brain health," says Ralph Sacco, MD, head of neurology at the University of Miami. Sacco, the immediate past president of the American Heart Association (AHA), was not involved with the work.
Although the link between dental health and heart and
stroke risk is not entirely clear, inflammation is a common problem in
gum disease and
heart disease, Sacco tells WebMD.
A number of studies have linked chronic inflammation to hardening of the
arteries, which can lead to
heart attacks and
stroke, he says.
Cleaning your teeth gets rid of bacteria in the mouth that can lead to chronic infection and inflammation, which can then spread to other parts of the body, Chen says.
The study was presented here at the American Heart Association annual meeting.
Benefits of Frequent Teeth Cleaning
Chen and colleagues reviewed the records of more than 100,000 people in Taiwan's national
health insurance database. About half had received at least one cleaning; the other half had never had a cleaning.
Their average age was 38 years. None had suffered a
heart attack or stroke when the study began. They were followed for an average of seven years.
Results showed that people who had more than one cleaning a year had the lowest risk of heart attack and stroke, Chen tells WebMD.
Because the researchers didn't have information on heart attack and stroke risk factors such as weight,
smoking, and race -- which could have affected the results -- it could be that people with good dental hygiene are more likely to eat right and have other heart-
healthy habits, Sacco says.