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Radiographic Assessment of Dental Health in Middle-aged Men Following Sudden Cardiac Death

¹ Medical School, University of Tampere and Research Unit of Clinical Chemistry, Tampere University Hospital, Finland;
² Institute of Dentistry, University of Helsinki, and Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Diseases, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland;
³ Oral and Maxillofacial Department, Tampere University Hospital, Finland;
⁴ Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland;
⁵ Department of Molecular Medicine, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland;
⁶ Department of Biometrics, Institute of Health, University of Tampere, Finland; and
⁷ Department of Clinical Pathology and Forensic Medicine, University of Kuopio, Finland

^* corresponding author, Päivionkatu 21, FIN-74100 Iisalmi, Europe; vesa.karhunen{at}fimnet.fi

Poor oral health has been suggested to be a risk factor for myocardial infarction. To study if dental pathology might predispose to pre-hospital sudden cardiac death, and using a sum index of panoramic tomography findings, we compared the oral health of middle-aged (33–69 yrs) male victims (Helsinki Sudden Death Study) of sudden cardiac death (n = 117) with that of controls, who died of non-cardiac diseases (n = 63) or suffered unnatural sudden death (n = 120). The mean number of teeth was 15.2, and 17.4% of the men were edentulous. Frequent age-associated findings in dentate victims were fillings (79.9%), horizontal bone loss (72.1%), periapical lesions (45.6%), residual roots (38.2%), and vertical pockets (30.9%). In multivariate analysis with coronary heart disease risk factors and number of teeth as covariates, poor oral health was associated (p = 0.053) with the risk of sudden cardiac death along with age, smoking, and body mass index. This association was especially strong (p = 0.009) among victims < 50 yrs.

KEY WORDS: dental • panoramic tomography • sudden cardiac death • myocardial infarction • coronary heart disease • middle-aged • male • autopsy