Brushing is an essential component of personal hygiene which gets rid of bacteria from your mouth and make you confident when you are interacting with others.
It seems there’s an added bonus to brushing as a new study sighted on DailyMail states that the everyday ritual could help lower your chances of heart failure.
It is thought that frequent brushing reduces bacteria living between the teeth and gums, preventing it entering the bloodstream.
Scientists in South Korea examined the connection between oral hygiene and heart problems in the study of 161,000 people aged between 40 and 79.
They had a routine medical examination between 2003 and 2004.
By the time of a follow-up ten years later, around 5 per cent had developed heart failure and three per cent atrial fibrillation.
Brushing three or more times a day was associated with a 12 per cent lower risk of heart failure and a 10 per cent reduced risk of atrial fibrillation.
The findings were independent of factors including age, sex, financial status, regular exercise, alcohol consumption and body mass index.
Other studies have shown that poor oral hygiene leads to bacteria in the blood, causing inflammation in the body.
This increases the risk of an irregular beat and heart failure.
The heart’s ability to pump blood or relax and fill with blood is impaired.
Senior study author Dr Tae-Jin Song, of Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, said: ‘We studied a large group over a long period, which adds strength to our findings.’
The research was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
Information from Daily.uk.co was also used in this report.
