Healthy heart habits can have positive benefits for oral health too, according to a study published in the American Academy of Periodontology's Journal of Periodontology. Researchers from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, examined data from over 12,000 individuals who participated in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) and found that individuals who exercised, had healthy eating habits and maintained a normal weight were 40 percent less likely to develop periodontitis.

The findings were reported in the article, Periodontitis and Three Health-Enhancing Behaviors: Maintaining Normal Weight, Engaging in Recommended Level of Exercise and Consuming a High-Quality Diet. Beside healthy brushing and flossing habits, prior to this study other healthy behaviours that contribute to the prevention of the disease were unknown, according to the researchers Mohammad S. Al-Zahrani, Elaine A. Borawski and Nabil F. Bissada. The study found that the prevalence of periodontitis was reduced by 29 per cent for those individuals who only met two of the healthy behaviours and 16 per cent in those that met at least one.

The authors claimed that advances in dental medicine have permitted more people to keep their teeth as they grow older and that understanding the underlying ways to prevent gum diseases have become increasingly important. Curious whether the same factors that can prevent heart disease and lower the risks for diabetes might also impact oral health, they examined the cumulative relationship between weight, exercise and a high-quality diet and dental disease in the United States population.

They concluded that the healthy behaviours such as exercise and diet that lower the risks of diabetes can also lower the risk factors for periodontitis. Exercise was also known to reduce the C-reactive protein in the blood associated with inflammation in the heart and periodontal disease. Healthy eating habits, which build the body's defences against disease, also reduce the production of plaque biofilm, which is the primary epidemiological factor associated with periodontal disease.

Conquering periodontal disease, according to the researchers, may mean more than just targeting the disease but addressing multiple risk behaviours, and since oral health professionals may see their patients two or four times a year, it gives them several opportunities to promote these healthy behaviours.