Cardiovascular Wellness and Optimal Oral Health: A symbiotic Relationship

Cardiovascular Wellness and Optimal Oral Health In order to appreciate the oral/systemic connection as it relates to vascular wellness, it is important to understand health from the perspective of the arteries and the mouth. Arterial health (or cardiovascular wellness) is a state for which atherosclerosis is absent [1], and, if atherosclerosis is present in the arterial system, there is no inflammation driving further development of disease progression [2]. Optimal oral health, as it relates to vascular wellness, is an oral environment that lacks the inflammation to allow oral pathogens to invade the vascular system and create the opportunity for an unstable atherosclerotic disease state [3]. There are many conditions that cause vascular inflammation. Oral bacteria (periodontal disease) are one of those conditions.