The information gathered from the interviews was then linked to hospital admissions and deaths in Scotland until December 2007.

Once the data were adjusted to take into account other risk factors for heart disease, such as family history, social class, obesity and smoking, the researchers found that participants who reported less frequent toothbrushing had a 70 per cent extra risk of heart disease compared to those who brushed their teeth twice per day.

People who had poor oral hygiene also tested positively for inflammatory “markers” in the body such as C-reactive protein and fibrinogen.

Prof Watt said that more work would need to be done to confirm whether poor oral health was a marker for cardiovascular disease, or whether it actually caused it. But he said: “Our results confirmed and further strengthened the suggested association between oral hygiene and the risk of cardiovascular disease – furthermore inflammatory markers were significantly associated with a very simple measure of poor oral health behaviour.”

But he says that a “simple self-report measure of toothbrushing” could give a good idea of a person’s future risk of cardiovascular disease.

“Given the high prevalence of oral infections in the population, doctors should be alert to the possible oral source of an increased inflammatory burden.

“In addition, educating patients in improving personal oral hygiene is beneficial to their oral health regardless of the relation with systemic disease.”

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