Brushing your teeth well won’t just give you a cleaner smile. In a new randomized pilot study, which was published in The American Journal of Medicine, researchers found that bushing with a plaque-identifying toothpaste can potentially lower levels of systemic inflammation by improving a person’s brushing efficacy.

The new study explored what effect a particular plaque-identifying toothpaste had on reducing C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, compared to regular toothpaste. Note: High CRP levels have been cited as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease.  

Plaque HD was the novel toothpaste tested in the study for its unique ability to highlight plaque while a person is cleaning their teeth. The maker of the toothpaste claims PlaqueHD is twice as effective at removing plaque as conventional toothpaste, making it a useful product to evaluate the link between more effective teeth cleaning and CRP levels.

The trial recruited around 100 subjects, randomized into two groups, one using the PlaqueHD toothpaste for 30 days, and the other acting as placebo using conventional toothpaste for 30 days. CRP levels were evaluated at the beginning and end of the trial period.

The results interestingly found statistically significant decreases in CRP levels in the PlaqueHD group compared to placebo, only in subjects displaying elevated CRP levels at baseline. This suggests more effective teeth cleaning may reduce CRP levels, but only in those already showing high levels of systemic inflammation.

Put simply, the study essentially tells us that better teeth cleaning can possibly lower levels of a biomarker linked to systemic inflammation.