Interrelationship between Cerebrovascular Disease and Periodontitis

Abstract

Cerebrovascular disease (CVD) is the second most common cause of death and contributes to a high morbidity worldwide. The major etiology is an atherosclerosis. Many well-known risk factors, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia and diabetes, are defined as traditional risk factors. Treatment and control of traditional risk factors also improve both cardiovascular and cerebrovascular outcomes. To date, many studies reported an association between stroke and nontraditional risk factors, such as infectious diseases or inflammatory process. Periodontal disease (PD) is an infection of the gum and other toothsupporting structures, with an on going inflammatory process and affects a large number of populations worldwide. Current evidence demonstrated the local and systemic inflammatory effects in periodontitis induced an atherosclerosis. This review aims to provide the current knowledge on the association between periodontal disease and cerebrovascular disease.