Irish people who don't regularly attend the dentist are at great risk of developing serious heart defects, new research has revealed.
Detailed international studies have confirmed strong links between serious gum disease and chronic heart ailments, it was stated yesterday at the Irish Dental Association's annual conference in Killarney.
In his keynote address to the 380 delegates, Prof Bob Genco, associate dean of the school of dental medicine at the State University of New York, said new studies had confirmed that undetected serious gum disease can cause heart attacks.
"It is a conservative estimate that 30 per cent of the population aged over 50 have severe gum disease that could lead to fatal heart ailments and most of them may not even know it," said Prof Genco, who is widely regarded as the world's foremost periodontal disease specialist. He said the risk of suffering a heart attack as a result of poor oral hygiene was about as great as an attack brought on by high cholesterol. People with serious gum decay also ran a high risk of developing respiratory problems.
Prof Genco said that gum decay was a silent disease and sufferers might not realise it affected them until it was too late.
In a random survey conducted by his team in the US, 50 per cent of those examined had serious gum disease and 44 per cent of those were not aware of it.
The chairman of the Irish Dental Association's scientific committee, Dr P. J. Byrne, told the conference that there were now proposals to include complete health monitoring as part of the practice of dentistry in this country.
The president of the Irish Dental Association, Dr Barry Harrington, said that more than 60 per cent of all Irish people do not visit the dentist on a regular basis and that posed great health risks.