H ealth-conscious baby boomers woke up to specter of gum disease a little more than a decade ago, when even characters in Doonesbury comic strip started worrying about it. Periodontal disease gives people long-in-the-tooth look associated with advancing age. Appearances may be least of boomers' concerns, however. Medical researchers view gum disease as a clue to serious health problems elsewhere in body. It's not surprising that poor health in one part of body can affect other parts. After all, young children learn that thighbone's connected to hipbone, hipbone's connected to backbone, and that links end with headbone. Yet family doctors have considered teeth and gums as primarily dentist's domain, while dentists have traditionally viewed anything beyond mouth as M.D.'s territory. Exploring links between oral health and overall well-being has led researchers to challenge myth of the independence of parts, says dental researcher Robert J. Genco of State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. Gum infections may both stem from and cause health problems in distant regions of body. Several teams of scientists are investigating ties between periodontal infections and systemic disorders such as osteoporosis and heart disease. Traditionally, people have considered [periodontal disease] to be a low-grade infection that was pretty self-limiting, says periodontist Steven Offenbacher of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But there's more at risk here than people's teeth. connection between oral health and overall health may have far-reaching implications. About 60 percent of people in United States over age 12 have some gum disease, according to American Academy of Periodontology. Because teeth are rooted in bone, researchers anticipate a close link between health of jawbones and general bone strength, which deteriorates in older people. most well known consequence of fragile bones is a broken hip. Less obviously, weakened jawbones may be more susceptible to attack from bacteria that cause gum disease, says epidemiologist Jean Wactawski-Wende of SUNY-Buffalo. The weaker your bones are, more likely you are to have tooth loss, she says. It does make intuitive sense.