What is systolic blood pressure?
Systolic blood pressure is the force at which your heart pumps blood around your body.
According to the American Heart Association (AHA), attention is given to systolic blood pressure as it is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease for people over 50.
Commenting on the study’s implications, corresponding author Francesco D’Aiuto, D.M.D., M.Clin.Dent., Ph.D., professor of periodontology at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute, said: “Oral health strategies such as brushing teeth twice daily are proven to be very effective in managing and preventing the most common oral conditions, and our study’s results indicate they can also be a powerful and affordable tool to help prevent hypertension.”
How to check your blood pressure
Most people will not experience symptoms associated with high blood pressure so the only way of knowing whether you have high blood pressure is to have a blood pressure test.
