The Association between Self-reported Periodontitis and Coronary Heart Disease―From MY Health Up Study

In the last 10 yr, a new dental field called “periodontal medicine1)” has been proposed, which draws attention to the relationship between periodontal disease and systemic diseases. There have been reports of an association between periodontal disease, which are chronic inflammatory diseases, and heart diseases. Epidemiological studies of the association between periodontal disease and heart diseases have been reported in the last 10 or so years2-10). So far, however, no clear conclusions have been reached. The objectives of our cross-sectional study of a large group of Japanese workers were to examine the association between the state of oral health such as the presence of periodontitis and two CHDs, myocardial infarction and angina pectoris. We here define CHD as myocardial infarction or angina pectoris, or a combination of both. The investigation was implemented using results of a baseline investigation of the “MY Health Up Study, ” which was conducted at a large insurance firm for the purpose of health maintenance of its workers.