Periodontal disease and atherosclerosis

Atherosclerotic disease (AD) is one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. It expresses inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and can provoke arterial wall thickening, which can be evaluated using Doppler ultrasound. Risk factors associated with AD include diabetes mellitus, systemic arterial hypertension, dyslipidemia and smoking. More recently, periodontal disease (PD) has been identified as a factor related to AD. Periodontal disease has a high prevalence in the global population and the inflammatory process and bacterial activity at the periodontium appear to increase the risk of AD. Encouraging good oral hygiene can reduce expression of inflammatory markers of AD. A review of literature on PD, AD and inflammatory markers and the interrelationships between the two diseases was conducted using data published in articles indexed on the PUBMED, SCIELO and BIREME databases