We now know that poor oral hygiene can have an impact on our state of health, and that, for example, neglecting to brush your teeth regularly increases the risk of cognitive decline.
Researchers at the University of Osaka, Japan, are interested in the link between oral hygiene and cardiovascular disease. In particular, they wanted to know if it was important to brush your teeth at least twice a day. Their conclusion: if brushing your teeth before breakfast is necessary, brushing your teeth in the evening before going to bed is even more important for preventing cardiovascular disease.
Too tired to brush their teeth at night
For their study, researchers from the University of Osaka, Japan, recruited 1,675 patients over the age of 20 who had been hospitalized in Osaka for surgery, examination or medical treatment. Participants were divided into four groups, based on their oral hygiene habits: a group that brushes their teeth after waking up and in the evening (409 people), a group that brushes their teeth in the evening but not upon awakening (751 people), a group that brushes their teeth in the morning but not in the evening (164 people) and finally a group that does not brush their teeth at all (259 people).
“Among the patients who do not brush their teeth at night, many mentioned that they consumed alcohol, which made them too tired and that they went to bed without brushing their teeth” underline the researchers. For others, they are habits learned from their parents during childhood, due to lifestyle and regional variations.
However, the follow-up of these patients revealed that there were fewer deaths due to cardiovascular diseases among those in the “morning and evening brushing” and “evening brushing” groups than in the other two groups.
“Brushing your teeth at night is crucial for maintaining good oral health, as the intraoral bacterial load increases during sleep due to reduced salivary flow,” the researchers insist.
Source : Not brushing teeth at night may increase the risk of cardiovascular diseaseScientific reports, June 2023
