What is Evidence-Based Dentistry, and Do Oral Infections Increase Systemic Morbidity or Mortality?

From Celsus' first reports of rubor, calor, dolor, tumor, and functio laesa, has come an understanding of inflammation's manifestations at the organ, tissue, vascular, cellular, genetic, and molecular levels. Molecular medicine now raises the opposite question: can local oral infections and their inflammatory mediators increase systemic morbidity or mortality? From these perspectives we examine the clinical evidence relating caries, periodontal disease, and pericoronitis to systemic disease. Widespread affirmation of an oral-systemic linkage remains elusive, raising sobering cautions.