A dental disease shortening my life and ruining my quality of life?Yes, Periodontal Disease, aka Gum Disease! Most people, including dentists, have never considered this. Chronic gum infection allows microbes to enter your blood stream and cause inflammation throughout your body. Why is this important? Because it causes the liver to release proteins that make your cholesterol more sticky, covering your blood vessel walls, filling it in, and making your heart overwork to pump the needed amount of blood around your body. This wears out your ticker faster, causing heart attacks, the need for by-pass surgery (if you catch it in time), the expense of numerous drugs to keep you functioning, loss of sex drive, and on and on….. If some of that plaque breaks loose, and lodges in blood vessels in your brain, you will have a STROKE. Unfortunately, people usually do not get treatment until the late stages, when they have pain. Did I forget to mention the major connection between gum disease and DIABETES? There is more on that in our website. Food for thought! Questions?