*The original study was published in the Journal of Dental Research (July 27th -2016)
Dental Endodontic root tip infections are relatively common, can be painful or symptomless and new research has shown there may be a link to an increased risk for heart disease.
More than half the participants in a study of heart disease patients in Finland also had Endodontic infections according to researchers at the University of Helsinki. This research adds to already growing evidence that there may be a direct correlation between dental problems and an increase in risk for heart disease.
Previous studies have shown that numerous dental problems such as those caused by inflammation and periodontal disease can already be linked to heart disease.
An Endodontic infection is originally caused by cavities, once they deepen and infect the dental pulp, your body mounts an immune response. The infections can either be painful causing a dental visit where it is diagnosed or it can be symptomless and go unnoticed for some time until a routine examination accidentally finds it via X-ray or other problems develop.
In this study which was published in the Journal of Dental Research, the researchers took angiograms of 508 patients with a mean age of 62 who had symptoms of heart disease, 123 of whom did not have heart disease, 184 had stable heart disease and 169 had acute coronary syndrome.
The researchers reported that 58 percent of the participants had one or more inflammatory lesions in their teeth or jaws, finding high levels of serum antibodies linked to infection in participants with one or more lesion.
Having a root canal may remove the infection but more research is needed on whether the treatment reduces the actual risk of heart disease. Why take that chance by not having Root Canal Therapy to correct a known problem, even as a precautionary measure to remove an active infection?
“Acute coronary syndrome is 2.7 times more common among patients with untreated teeth in need of root canal treatment than among patients without this issue,” John Liljestrand, a researcher at the University of Helsinki, said in a press release.