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The habit of brushing teeth as soon as you wake up has got to do much more than just assuring a clean set of teeth. A new study has found that failing to brush teeth properly could increase the risk of a premature death due to cancer.

The research has found a link between high levels of dental plaque and reduced sustainability for cancer.

Apparently, people with a large amount of bacteria on their teeth and gums had 80% more chances of a premature death and could lose their lives 13 years earlier than others.

Infection and inflammation plays a role in at least one in five cancers, and also plays a major role in gum disease caused by dental plaque, say researchers according to Mail Online.

Swedish researchers who authored the latest study say that poor mouth hygiene could indicate lifestyle factors associated with cancer.

For the research, the health records of 1,390 randomly selected adults from Stockholm were studied for 24 years, starting from year 1985, and their mouth hygiene was also assessed. None of the participants had gum disease but had varying plaque levels.

It seems, by 2009, 58 of them had died and one third of them were women. Of the 58, 35 died due to cancer.

While the deaths among women were largely due to breast cancer, men died due to a different range of cancers.

The study revealed that those who died had a higher dental plaque index than those who survived. While the values of the dental plaque showed that people who died had their gums and teeth covered with plaque, teeth and gums were only partially covered with plaque in case of those who survived.

The results suggest a higher level of plaque is associated with "higher all-cause mortality," Dr Paul Pharoah, reader in cancer epidemiology at the University of Cambridge said, according to Mail Online.

"Over the 24 years of follow-up the average death rate was two per thousand per year. For the 2.5 percent of the population with a plaque index about one higher than average (1.7 compared to 0.7) the average death rate would be about three per thousand per year. That means that a small proportion of the population with the worst level of plaque are at a slightly increased risk of dying. This association may not be causal," he added.