title: Taking oral health to heart: an overview.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This article is an introduction to the 2001 ADA symposium, "Taking Oral Health to Heart," which focused on the relationship between periodontal disease and cardiovascular disease. This overview describes the databases and terminology used in discussions of epidemiologic studies on this topic.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In determining if a certain disease, medication or condition is a risk factor for another entity, one must carefully evaluate and analyze the data, weigh the various other contributing risk factors and then determine the mechanism of interaction if an association is established.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This symposium provided practitioners with various concepts regarding the role of periodontal disease as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and the data presented represent the state of the art.
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics and Endodontics, Center for Dental Studies, State University of New York at Buffalo, Room 250, Squire Hall, 3435 Main St., Buffalo, N.Y. 14214, USA.
authors.forename: Sebastian G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Ciancio
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010510:Periodontal Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D012307:Risk Factors; D009626:Terminology as Topic