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"In a recent subscriber survey conducted by THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE Dr. Bruce K. Barrow was chosen as one of the top Dentists in Kansas City."

The results of the survey will be published in a September 2006 supplement called "I Wonder Where to Go From Those In The Know".

Here's Dental News You Can Use

Did you know there's a direct link between your oral health and your heart health? Dr. Tracy Stevens, leading cardiologist with the Muriel I. Kauffman Women's Heart Center at St. Luke's Hospital of Kansas City explains:

"Learn CPR...save your husband's life" was the campaign motto for the American Heart Association in the early 1980's. During that era society related to heart disease as affecting only men. More recently, an American Heart Association survey reported only 8% of women interviewed were aware cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women over the age of thirty five, whereas over 60% believed cancer (specifically breast cancer) was the greatest danger to women's health.

Current statistics report one in five women will develop some form of cardiovascular disease, whereas one out of eight women will develop breast cancer. However, throughout a woman's life span, one in two women will die from cardiovascular disease and one in thirty will die from breast cancer. Women are more likely to die of their first heart attack than men and 60% percent of sudden cardiac death occurs in the absence of preceding warning symptoms.

Clinical symptoms of heart disease in women are more "atypical" and thus may lead to misdiagnosis. Chest pain is not the most common warning symptom in women. Rather, shortness of breath and indigestion are more often reported, along with described symptoms of neck, jaw and arm discomfort. Dentists are one of our most valuable colleagues in identifying a mystifying symptom, a toothache, which may lead to the suspicion of possible angina if the oral examination is normal.

Women should take a proactive role in their cardiovascular health by understanding and modifying their risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Important risk factors include:

• Unmodifiable: age, family history and race/ethnicity
• Modifiable: oral hygiene, sedentary lifestyle, nicotine abuse, obesity
• Treatable: diabetes mellitus, hypertension, abnormal cholesterol profiles, menopausal status (loss of estrogen)

Future editorials will emphasize each risk factor individually and highlight gender related differences and diagnostic approaches to what is now termed the "silent epidemic in women".

Tracy L. Stevens, M.D. Medical Director,
Muriel I Kauffman Women's Heart Center
Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute Cardiovascular Consultants, P.A. (816) 931-1883