How can bad dental health cause heart disease?

Question

How can bad dental health cause heart disease?

In: 97

Answer 1

Aside from when it leads to actual infections of the heart, the evidence is mostly correlational.

The idea is increased inflammation from bacteria in the mouth/poor oral hygiene leads to increased inflammation elsewhere which contributes to heart disease. It makes sense and people with poor dental hygiene tend to have higher risk of heart disease, but there are also a lot of potential confounding factors so its difficult to conclude causation.