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Gum disease does not increase the risk of heart disease
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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For two decades, scientists have been claiming a link between gum disease, heart attacks, and strokes. Now, a new analysis of the data suggests that these claims are false. The American Heart Association has published a “scientific report” in the AHA journal Circulation concluding that periodontitis does not increase the risk of heart disease and is not considered a cause of it. Not to mention that there is no evidence that treating periodontitis, either professionally or by brushing your teeth, can minimize the risk of heart attack or stroke.
Over the course of three years, the expert committee analyzed the results of 600 studies; the work was supported by the Council on Science of the American Dental Association. As one of the committee members emphasizes, if a strong causal relationship between atherosclerosis and periodontitis were present in reality, or if atherosclerosis could be cured by curing periodontitis, medical professionals would already know about it.
Hundreds of studies over the past 20 years have shown that periodontal disease is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Although most of these studies are considered suspicious by experts, since they were observational in nature. In other words, they simply concluded that heart patients or those who have already suffered a heart attack or stroke have periodontitis more often than healthy people. Although this does not necessarily reflect a causal relationship. The risk of cardiovascular disorders can increase due to several factors, such as age, smoking, excess weight, diabetes, low socioeconomic status, or belonging to the strong half of the world's population.
Another problem that almost every field of medicine faces is that negative studies are not made public. In other words, it is virtually impossible for a journal to agree to publish a report on a study that failed to find a link between periodontitis and cardiovascular disease.
The American Heart Association hopes that the publication of its decision will be useful, and that people will realize that periodontitis does not increase the risk of heart and vascular disease, and therefore focus on the real culprits of disease - smoking, excess weight, arterial hypertension and stress.
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