What do your teeth and your heart have in common? Plaque. A new study says that your care of one could affect the other. In a recent study, cardiovascular problems occurred more often for people who brushed their teeth less than once a day.

Researchers from the University College London recruited nearly 12,000 for the study. They followed participants for an average of eight years and reported a total of 555 cardiovascular disease “events”, including heart attacks and bypass surgeries.

Participants who brushed their teeth less than once daily were 70 percent more likely to experience such an event. This study also linked less frequent brushing to a higher incidence of C-reactive protein, an inflammatory marker found in the blood that’s associated with heart disease.

This isn’t the first study to associate poor dental health with poor heart health, either. Previous studies have linked heart disease to periodontal (gum) disease.

“We were surprised to find a relationship between tooth brushing frequency and both cardiovascular disease and inflammatory markers in the blood," study co-author Professor Richard Watt of University College London told Business Week. “More research is needed to test if improving patients’ oral hygiene to reduce their gum inflammation has an effect on cardiovascular disease risk.”

Visit Business Week to read more about the study, or see Watt’s research in British Medical Journal.