Free Republic

Periodontitis, a gum disease, can lead to a litany of dental issues from bad breath to bleeding and lost teeth. Now, researchers have found that it could be connected to even more severe problems elsewhere in the body—the heart. The team found a significant correlation between periodontitis and fibrosis (which is scarring to an appendage of the heart's left atrium that can lead to an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation) in a sample of 76 patients with cardiac disease. "Periodontitis is associated with a long-standing inflammation, and inflammation plays a key role in atrial fibrosis progression and atrial fibrillation pathogenesis,"...

A dispute over some missing gold teeth led to a downtown shooting and two arrests in Culpeper this week. Police Sgt. J.C. Welch said two men, a woman and a male juvenile were smoking PCP at a Piedmont Street residence Wednesday when one man and the juvenile decided to leave. After they left, Rian Goldsby of Manassas could not find his set of gold teeth, so he and the woman went looking for the pair who had left, Welch said. When they found the two near the post office on South Main Street, Goldsby jumped out of his vehicle and...