An IU School of Dentistry researcher is in the midst of a study that may show whether dental patients whose teeth are cleaned regularly are getting far more than a sparkling white smile: they may also be reducing the chances of developing heart disease.

Leading a team of researchers from IU's schools of Dentistry and Medicine, Dr. Michael Kowolik is using a $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study dental plaque accumulation as a risk factor for heart disease.

Simply put,the notion is that what goes on in the mouth probably affects the rest of the body.

Some 140 volunteers are being tested in three groups. Testing of the first group was completed in June. Testing of the second group began in August and work with a third group will begin after the first of the year. Volunteers are healthy white Caucasian and African American men and women between the ages of 18 and 30.

Preliminary data from the first test group showed about one-third have cholesterol readings that are generally above the normal range expected for healthy young adults. Cholesterol is associated with heart disease.

Kowolik's research comes at a time when chronic infections in the body are under increasing investigation for the role they may play in the development of a number of health problems, including heart disease.

Cardiologists have known for 20 years that one of the principal risk factors for a heart attack is an elevated white blood cell count, Kowolik said. “We will study whether allowing plaque to accumulate is sufficient to raise the white blood cell count to the point it could become a risk factor for heart disease.” The group is also measuring the levels of several other factors in the blood that, if raised, may increase disease risk.

“We're not talking about people with advanced periodontal disease,” Kowolik said. “We are talking about healthy people who simply neglect oral hygiene.”

This latest study will not definitively prove that neglecting oral hygiene leads to heart disease, but the body of evidence that dentistry plays an important role in a preventive health program for the rest of the body is growing, Kowolik said.

Excited by the challenge the research presents, Kowolik said the work is a natural outgrowth of a dental education in which his professors took the enlightened view that “the health of the mouth is not something to be considered in isolation, but is integral to the health of the whole body.