Patients with bacteremia after dental extraction, third-molar surgery, dental scaling, endodontic treatment, and bilateral tonsillectomy were studied by means of lysis-filtration of blood samples with subsequent aerobic and anaerobic incubation. Samples were obtained before, during, and 10 min after treatment. Bacteremia was observed in 100% of patients after dental extraction, 55% of patients after third-molar surgery, 70% of patients after dental scaling, 20% of patients after endodontic treatment, and 55% of patients after bilateral tonsillectomy. Anaerobic microorganisms were isolated more frequently than aerobic microorganisms were, and viridans group streptococci were the most commonly isolated bacteria. Ten minutes after treatment, the frequency as weli as the magnitude of bacteremia showed pronounced reduction.

– The influence of a dry extra‐alveolar period on the viability of cells in the periodontal membrane of human and monkey teeth was examined in vitro. Extracted mature teeth were allowed to dry for 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 min. Cell viability was examined with the following methods: 1) Culturing the teeth with subsequent trypsination and counting of viable cells. 2) Culturing the teeth with subsequent vital staining of the root surface with neutral red and estimation of the vital stained periodontal membrane area in percentage of the total root surface. Both methods revealed that the number of viable cells in the period declines very rapidly with an increase in drying time. After 2 h it was not possible to demonstrate cell viability using tissue culture technique.

Background and Purpose— There is growing experimental evidence implicating chronic inflammation/infection as an atherosclerotic risk factor. In this study, the involvement of periodontal disease in the development of early atherosclerotic vascular lesions has been evaluated. Methods— In randomly chosen 82 patients with periodontal disease and 31 periodontally healthy individuals subjected to a clinical oral examination in 1985, atherosclerotic risk factor analysis and carotid ultrasonography was performed during reexamination 16 years later. Common carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) and lumen diameter were measured and intima-media area (cIMA) was calculated. The relationship between IMT and cIMA as dependent variables and periodontal disease, age, gender, body mass index, heredity for atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, plasma cholesterol, smoking, and education as independent variables was evaluated in a multiple logistic regression model. Results— The mean values of IMT and cIMA were significantly higher in patients with periodontal disease than in controls, both at the right ( P <0.01 and P <0.001, respectively) and left side ( P <0.001 for both variables). When the means of the bilateral measurements of these 2 ultrasonographic variables were tested, multiple logistic regression analysis identified periodontal disease as a principal independent predictor of the common carotid artery cIMA (odds ratio [OR], 5.20; P =0.003) and IMT (OR, 4.64; P =0.004). Conclusions— The present results indicate that periodontal disease is associated with the development of early atherosclerotic carotid lesions.