Dentists can play a potentially life-saving role in healthcare by identifying patients at risk of fatal heart attacks and referring them to physicians for further evaluation, according to a Swedish study.

Published in the November issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association, the study followed 200 patients (101 women and 99 men) in private dental practices in Sweden whose dentists used a computerised system, 'HeartScore', to calculate the risk of a patient dying from a cardiovascular event within a ten-year period.

Designed by the European Society of Cardiology, HeartScore measures cardiovascular disease risk in persons aged 40-65 by factoring the persons age, sex, total cholesterol level, systolic blood pressure and smoking status. A HeartScore was produced for each patient in the study and patients with a HeartScore of 10% or higher were recommended to seek medical advice.

Twelve patients in the study, all of them men, had HeartScores of 10% or higher. All women participating in the study had HeartScores of 5% or less. Of the 12 male patients with HeartScores of 10% or higher, nine sought further evaluation by a medical care provider who decided that intervention was indicated for six of the patients. Two patients did not follow the dentist's recommendation to seek further medical evaluation and one patient was only encouraged by his dentist to discontinue smoking. Physicians for three patients were not able to confirm their risk for cardiovascular disease.

The study's authors conclude that oral healthcare professionals can use the system to identify patients who are unaware of their risk of developing serious complications as a result of cardiovascular disease and who are in need of medical interventions. They commented, 'With emerging data suggesting an association between oral and non-oral diseases, and with the possibility of performing chairside screening tests for diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, oral healthcare professionals may find themselves in an opportune position to enhance the overall health and well-being of their patients.'