Gum Disease Increases Risk of Mental Health Problems by 37%

Gum disease has an impact on your overall physical health. Current data now link it to an increased risk of mental health problems

Gum disease may be an indication of an inflammatory process happening in the body and an indication the gut microbiome is out of balance. l i g h t p o e t/Shutterstock

A collaborative study led by researchers at the University of Birmingham looked at 64,379 people’s medical records and discovered that patients with periodontal disease have a 37 percent higher risk of developing mental health illness. The study, published in BMJ Open, also found that 60,995 had gingivitis and 3,384 had periodontitis. The data from these individuals were compared against 251,161 healthy individuals without any record of gum disease.

The researchers accounted for confounding factors, such as smoking habits, ethnicity, and body mass index. In addition to establishing the number of people with and without gum disease who also had mental health disease, they analyzed the data to determine the number in the same groups who developed cardiovascular disease, cardiometabolic disorders, or autoimmune conditions.

Gum Disease Raises the Risk of Mental Health Disorders

They discovered patients with a history of gum disease at the beginning of the study were more likely to be diagnosed with one of the health conditions in the following three years when compared against the healthy controls. The risk of mental health illness increased by 37 percent, autoimmune disease by 33 percent, and cardiovascular disease by 18 percent.