Dental plaque and cancer mortality
A paper just published in BMJ Open (British Medical Journal) documents an association between dental plaque and premature death from cancer. The authors set out to...
"...whether the amount of dental plaque, which indicates poor oral hygiene and is potential source of oral infections, associates with premature death from cancer."
They conducted an oral clinical examination on 1390 randomly selected healthy young Swedes and followed for 14 years. Background variables such as socioeconomic status and smoking were also filtered. What did the data show?
"The amount of dental plaque between those who had died versus survived was statistically significant. In multiple logistic regression analysis, dental plaque appeared to be a significant independent predictor associated with 1.79 times the OR of death. Age increased the risk with an OR of 1.98 and gender (men) with an OR of 1.91. The malignancies were more widely scattered in men, while breast cancer was the most frequent cause of death in women."
In other words, dental plaque predicted a 79% increase of premature death. The authors conclude:
"This study hypothesis was confirmed by showing that poor oral hygiene, as reflected in the amount of dental plaque, was associated with increased cancer mortality...In conclusion, based on the present findings, the high bacterial load on tooth surfaces and in gingival pockets over a prolonged time may indeed play a role in carcinogenesis. Therefore, the control of oral biofilm, in order to reduce the burden of the microbial noxa from the mouth, seems important to combat this development. Further studies are definitely required, however, to determine whether there is any causal element in the observed association reported here. If proven to be so, then new strategies for prevention and practical health recommendations would be warranted."
Clinical note: other studies have shown that oral dysbiosis can increase the global burden of inflammation and contribute to a wide range of chronic diseases with an inflammatory autoimmune component including cardiovascular disease. Oral hygiene should not be overlooked in case management of chronic inflammatory disorders.