Does Gum Disease Increase Cancer Risk?

Does Gum Disease Increase Cancer Risk?

Dr. Brenda Paulen is committed to building awareness and bringing attention to the oral-body connection. Through patient education, Dr. Paulen helps to encourage her patients to invest in preventative dentistry in efforts to protect their oral and systemic health. The oral-body connection is a theory supported by medical research that suggests the health of your teeth and gums has a direct impact on the health and well being of your entire body.

Research continues to show that patients with gum disease are more susceptible to illness- including cancer.

In the  TuftsNow article, More evidence of a link between severe gum disease and cancer risk, author Siobhan Gallagher takes a closer look at a recent study that suggests advanced periodontal disease may increase a patient’s risk of certain types of cancer.

“The research team found a 24 percent increase in the risk of developing cancer among participants with severe periodontitis, compared to those with mild to no periodontitis at baseline.”

Patients with severe periodontists had an increased risk of cancer. Tooth loss is a common secondary condition often caused by advanced gum disease. Edentulous patients were at a 28% higher risk of developing the same types of cancers.

Gallagher points out that this study continued to show that smokers were at higher risk of developing both advanced gum disease and different types of cancer.

The study suggested that while patients with advanced gum disease are at almost double their risk of developing lung cancer and increase their risk of colon cancer up to 80 percent, patients with periodontitis had no higher rights of breast, prostate or blood cancers.

This study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, led by epidemiologists Dominique Michaud at Tufts University School of Medicine and Elizabeth Platz of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Kimmel Cancer Center.