Cardiovascular disease

Oral Health &
Cardiovascular Disease

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Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the leading cause of death in the European Union, claiming 1.7 million lives annually and costing over €280 billion per year. At the Platform for Better Oral Health in Europe, we believe in the critical importance of integrating oral health into comprehensive CVD prevention and treatment strategies. Our position paper on integrating oral healthcare into Europe’s Safe Hearts Plan presents this belief and the framework under which the European Union must thrive to operate in to effectively tackle the ever-growing numbers of CVD patients.

The prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases is an issue frequently discussed by policymakers in the European Union. With the presentation of the Safe Hearts Plan, a concrete guidance has been given by the European Commission that describes future actions and guidelines for preventing CVDs, bolstered by the increased attention to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The European Parliament’s own report on an EU Cardiovascular Diseases Strategy and the simulatenously presented Safe Hearts Plan from the Commission underline the significant focus on CVDs and the appetite to act for solutions at the policy level. This has given the Platform many opportunities to work with the European Commission and Parliament and feed into the strategies by providing the scientific evidence that demonstrates that oral health is deeply interconnected with systemic health, and presenting policy recommendations to improve oral health in ways that can also support improved CVD outcomes.

Prevention:

  • Prevention must include oral health promotion as a core strategy, as chronic inflammatory gum diseases is independently associate with a range of major NCDs, including cardiovascular diseases.
  • The Platform calls on the European Commission to recognise oral health as a key determinant for cardiovascular health.
  • Integrating oral health into EU-wide public health camp gains would amplify the impact the impact of initiatives like Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.,

Early Detection:

  • The Platform calls on the European Commission to publish guidelines to utilise dental visits for early CVD detection.
  • Oral health professionals can support EU protocols for health checks and digital tools for personalised monitoring by referring patients to cardiovascular screening when oral indicators are present.
  • Screening programmes should therefore promote interdisciplinary care pathways that reflect the reality of multimorbidity, ensuring that individuals diagnosed with CVD receive appropriate oral health assessment and management, and vice versa.

Early Detection:

  • Strengthening prevention through improved access to self-care measures represents a further opportunity to reduce disease burden and healthcare costs. Ensuring affordability of essential oral hygiene products could support higher uptake of preventative efforts for vulnerable populations.
  • Measures to improve access to care and reducing health inequalities have the potential to deliver short- and long-term economic benefits by reducing the demand for costly treatment and improving population-wide health outcomes.