Overview

The Perio & Cardio project, a collaboration between the European Federation of Periodontology (EFP) and the World Heart Federation (WHF), is to promote awareness of the important links between periodontal and cardiovascular diseases, explaining how these two diseases can be fought together.

Both periodontitis and cardiovascular diseases are common, widely spread, chronic non-communicable diseases, whose prevalence increases with age. There is scientific evidence of associations between the two forms of disease and periodontitis is associated with an increased risk of acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and stroke.

There are common lifestyle factors that aggravate both periodontitis and cardiovascular disease – such as smoking, stress, obesity, diabetes, and an unhealthy diet. The early diagnosis, prevention, and co-management (by dentists and physicians) of both CVD and periodontitis is of the utmost importance.

The Perio & Cardio project provides guidelines that explain the links between these two diseases and the steps that should be taken by oral-healthcare professionals, medical professionals and pharmacists, and patients and the public.

The project includes graphic and video materials, concise reports that explain the science behind the guidelines.

The Perio & Cardio project has been created from evidence-based science and the conclusions of the Perio-Cardio Workshop held by the EFP and the World Heart Federation, in partnership with Dentaid, in Madrid in February 2019.

All the materials provided here – the recommendations, the graphic and video material, the scientific reports – have been created by an expert team based on the detailed scientific papers produced by this workshop and published in the EFP’s Journal of Clinical Periodontology.

The scientific experts responsible for the content of Perio & Cardio are Filippo Graziani, Paula Matasanz, Hady Haririan​​​​​​​ and Henrik Dommisch.

They have been assisted by Sharon Legendre (EFP head of operations), Paul Davies (EFP editorial co-ordinator), Santi Quiñones (EFP communications co-ordinator), Gonzalo Herrero (design), and Canterbury Web Services (website).

The EFP thanks Dentaid for its unrestricted grant that has made possible the creation of Perio & Cardio.