Today is… World Dental Day!   (Applause)  

What, you may ask, do your pearly whites have to do with life insurance?? 

Well… there is this study suggesting people with poor oral hygiene are more likely to suffer heart disease, which of course increases your probability of an early death… which impacts directly on life insurance!!  

Yeah, right… you say. Well the study was reported in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine in December 2005, in which more than 40,000 US adults aged 40 to 79 from 22 states were studied. None of the subjects smoked. The study concluded that “A significant association was observed between the extent of tooth loss and heart disease prevalence.”  

In fact, the study turned up the following extraordinary results…   

Number of teeth missing        % of people in the group that had heart disease

• 1 to 5 missing teeth                6.8% had heart disease

• 6 to 31 missing teeth              10.2% had heart disease

• Complete tooth loss                11.5% had heart disease

…meaning people with tooth decay are technically in a higher risk category when they apply for life insurance and they should pay more.    

So, what about a question on the old life insurance application form probing your oral hygiene habits, eh?