We read with profound interest the research brief entitled “Are cardiovascular risk parameters and glycemic levels associated with periodontitis in type 2 diabeticpatients? A clinical study” by Dhir and Vivek Kumar. This study is of great clinical and epidemiological relevance to us as most mainland Indians suffer from periodontitis and tobacco habits are prevalent among them. It is well documented that periodontitis is a potential trigger for systemic inflammation. The acute-phase proteins may act as intermediary steps in the pathway from periodontal infection to cardiovascular disease. One of the famous indologists of modern India late Rai Krishna Das who suffered from hypertension and stroke used to compare poor oral hygiene to 32 poisonous snakes in the mouth, detrimental to health, particularly to cardiovascular health, as early as in 1972. There is a good amount of data available in the literature suggesting periodontitis as a possible risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. In the aforementioned article, vascular risk associated with periodontitis has been well brought out, but two points need to be discussed.First issue is that of the vascular and periodontitis risk associated with tobacco needs clarity on the type of tobacco usage: smoking, smokeless tobacco, or both. It seems that authors have considered smoking alone in this article, not including the history of tobacco usage. This is an omission that deprives us of any possible role of tobacco as a risk for periodontitis and/or diabetes.Second, and more importantly, is the mismatch between units and values dealing with metabolic parameters. Units of sugar and lipids are purported to be in mmol/L, but values given seem to be in mg/dl. This needs to be corrected lest the reader goes with alarmingly high values of cholesterol and triglycerides in these cases, which in our opinion may not be the case.This article reiterates that because smoking and oral tobacco usage are controllable environmental risk factors for various systemic conditions; their detailed mention cannot be overemphasized in case of history recording for every cardiovascular/diabetes case. Also, a thorough examination of the teeth and supporting structures while dealing with the aforementioned cases is imperative.