Abstract

Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory response to bacterial plaque that causes tooth mobility and loss by destroying the supporting soft tissues and anchoring bone. The infection that causes dental caries spreads from the dentine to the vascular dental pulp and periapical bony tissues before affecting adjacent soft tissues and causing sepsis to spread. Periodontitis is linked to increased cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and peripheral artery disease,as measured by clinical disease, angiography, ultrasonography, and reduced flow-mediated dilation, according to a number of case-controlled, cross-sectional, and cohort studies. This review identifies the necessity of further investigation into these associations because some studies report a similar relationship between atherosclerosis and periapical infection and possibly also with coronal caries.