Dr's Casebook: ​Regular dental flossing linked to better heart health

Dr Keith Souter writes: Following on from that some important research from the USA presented at the American Stroke Association’s international stroke conference strongly suggests that flossing your teeth at least once a week can markedly reduce the risk not only of having a stroke, but also reduce the risk of developing atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat.

The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities or the ARIC study is the first major study to assess the home use of dental floss by studying the questionnaires of 6,000 people.

Among those who reported flossing their teeth, over 4,000 had not experienced a stroke, and about the same number had not been diagnosed with the type of irregular heartbeat known as atrial fibrillation.

This irregularity is a risk factor for developing a stroke, there is always the possibility of flicking off a blood clot from the heart, which can lodge in the arteries in the brain.

The people in the study were followed up for 25 years.

Over that time over 400 people had a stroke. Of this number almost 150 had an ischaemic stroke, which is due to arteriosclerosis or hardening of the arteries.

About 100 had a stroke related to atrial fibrillation, where they had flicked off a clot from the irregularly beating heart. Notably, 1,200 people had developed atrial fibrillation.

They also found that dental flossing was associated with a 22 per cent lower risk of ischemic stroke from hardening of the arteries.

Significantly, it was associated with a 44 per cent lower risk of stroke related to atrial fibrillation.

And they also found that flossing was associated with a 12 per cent lower risk of developing atrial fibrillation.

When they analysed further they found that the lower risk was independent of regular tooth brushing and regular dental visits.

The flossing itself seems to give this benefit.

How it reduces the risk of developing atrial fibrillation is not clear, but if reducing the risk of stroke and of atrial fibrillation can be done with something so simple, it is worth regularly flossing.