Dental floss can reduce the risk of stroke

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Good oral hygiene protects teeth from tooth decay and periodontitis. According to current, as yet unpublished research from the USA, regular cleaning of the spaces between the teeth with dental floss could also help reduce the risk of stroke.

Brushing your teeth at least twice daily is the usual recommendation to remove pathogens and keep the chewing apparatus healthy for as long as possible. This is because recurring or even chronic inflammation in the oral cavity not only damages the teeth. Research in recent years has shown that there may be a link between poor oral health and cardiovascular disease.

Experts have various theories as to why there might be a connection. One is that bacteria that cause tooth decay or infect the gums travel via the bloodstream to other parts of the body and cause inflammation there, too. Remnants of such bacteria have actually been found in atherosclerotic narrowed arteries far from the mouth. Blood clots, heart attacks and strokes can be the result of such damage.

Toothbrush alone is not enough
However, it may not be the bacteria themselves that are to blame, but rather oxidative stress – i.e. an excessive immune response of the body, as a study published in 2023 suspects. Genetic factors have also not been ruled out. Whatever mechanisms are at work here, there appears to be a link between dental hygiene, oral infections and cardiovascular disease.

However, recent research not yet published in a peer-reviewed journal, which will be presented next week at the American Stroke Association conference, suggests that daily brushing is not enough to prevent the spread of oral infections in the body and possibly strokes caused by them.

“Our aim was to find out which oral hygiene measures – brushing, flossing or regular visits to the dentist – have the greatest impact in preventing strokes,” explains neurologist and study author Souvik Sen from the University of South Carolina in a press release.

Interdental spaces are crucial
Over a period of 25 years, the researchers tracked the dental hygiene habits of more than 6,000 people (average age: 62 years) using questionnaires. As part of the “Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities” study (ARIC study for short), other factors that can increase the risk of stroke were also surveyed, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol levels, and smoking.

Around 65% of the participants said they used dental floss or interdental brushes at least once weekly to clean their teeth. They were significantly less likely to suffer from periodontitis and tooth decay than those who only brushed their teeth, went to the dentist annually, and regularly removed tongue plaque.

Stroke and cardiac arrhythmia
During the observation period, 434 people suffered a stroke. However, it was found that the risk of an insult due to a blocked or atherosclerotic narrowed blood vessel was reduced by a good twenty percent through the use of dental floss, the study team writes. The probability of suffering a stroke due to a blood clot traveling from the heart to the brain fell by almost 45 percent.

Cardiac arrhythmias also occurred less frequently in this group – according to the researchers, the risk of atrial fibrillation (the most common form of cardiac arrhythmia), which can also cause strokes or lead to heart failure, was twelve percent lower.

Inexpensive prevention
“Dental floss is available everywhere and, unlike other dental care products, it is not expensive. Using it regularly is a healthy and easy habit to practise,” recommends Sen, who has already investigated the links between tooth decay and the occurrence of cerebral haemorrhages in an earlier study. Nevertheless, further research is needed to substantiate the results presented here, which are based solely on questionnaires to assess the risk of stroke.