For decades, the connection between gum disease and heart health has been acknowledged in medical literature yet quietly ignored in practice. A new randomised trial conducted among cardiac rehabilitation patients offers a gentle corrective: the moment of recovery from a cardiac event, when people are already reorienting their lives around health, may be precisely the right moment to address the mouth as well as the heart. By weaving oral hygiene education into existing rehabilitation routines, researchers found that patients changed their behaviour in measurable ways — suggesting that the arch