Oral Health and Cardiovascular Disease - A Scoping Review of Assessment Methods, Risk Factors, and Prognosis.

Oral frailty, which encompasses decline in oral health and function with aging, has broader health implications. However, its specific role in individuals with cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains poorly understood. In this scoping review we investigated the prevalence, assessment tools, and potential intervention strategies for oral frailty in patients with CVD. We used the Population, Concept, and Context framework as follows: Population: Patients with CVD; Concept: Existing literature on oral frailty in the context of CVD; Context: Not restricted. Extracted data were synthesized qualitatively. From an initial pool of 3,199 studies, 70 were included in the final analysis, with a cumulative sample size of 891,450 individuals. Among the assessment tools for oral frailty, the number of teeth was the most commonly used measure in 39 studies, followed by the Decayed, Missing, Filled Index. Of the studies, 5 studies indicated that coronary artery disease and diabetes are risk factors for oral frailty, and 8 identified poor oral health as a predictor of cardiac events. However, no study clearly defined oral frailty in the context of CVD. Additionally, only 2 studies explored the relationship between oral health and physical frailty. This results of this review underscore the lack of a standardized definition for oral frailty in CVD. Although associations between oral health and prognosis were observed, further research is needed to clarify the definitions and explore causal relationships.