Poor oral health is directly linked to 23 systemic diseases, including diabetes, obesity and asthma, and five types of cancer, reveals research released Monday.
The conclusion is part of the most recent study “A global review of the evidence linking oral health and systemic non-communicable diseases”, published in Nature Communications by the research center of the Egas Moniz School of Health and Sciences and launched at the World Health Day. Oral.
The report concludes that “compromised oral health is directly related to 23 systemic diseases and five types of cancer, namely lung, pancreatic, breast, prostate, and head and neck cancer.
Among the diseases that can occur in patients with poor oral health are diabetes, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, rheumatic, intestinal inflammatory diseases, as well as obesity and asthma, says the Egas Moniz School of Sciences and Health in a statement.
This is the first study that, combining all the scientific information produced worldwide, demonstrates the existence of an association between oral health and 28 different pathologies, reinforcing its importance for general health and justifying why it should be an integral part of follow-up. clinical. ”, he underlines.
According to researcher João Botelho, from the Egas Moniz Interdisciplinary Research Center, the results of this study coincide with the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Report on Oral Health 2022, which warns of “the urgent need to definitively incorporate, not only oral health care, but also education for it in health systems”.
In this sense, from our research we intend not only to verify the correlation between oral health and other pathologies, but also to reinforce the importance of the role of dentistry as a guarantee of general health and the commitment to prevention as a complement to it. . attention and treatment”, points out João Botelho.
For the researcher, this question is one of “extremely important” when it turns out that “oral health care, even basic, is not available to everyone”.
According to the WHO World Oral Health Report, diseases that affect the oral cavity are the most common and affect half of the world’s population.
In this sense, the Egas Moniz research reinforces the need to prevent systemic diseases with an impact on the quality of life of patients, and estimates that the number of diseases associated with neglected oral health may increase, depending on the number of studies carried out. .
The researchers also warn of the predominance of these pathologies in Portugal, which reaches high values in comparison with other European countries.
They also argue that preventive measures in oral health have an economic impact, giving as an example that, in 2018 alone, periodontitis, a disease that affects the gums, caused an economic loss in the European Union estimated at 159,000 million euros.
The Egas Moniz Interdisciplinary Research Center currently has 18 fully equipped state-of-the-art laboratories, 80 integrated members and more than 100 regular collaborators.
Source: Observadora
