Teeth and dementia
Dementia is coming to the toothless
Ekaterina Shutova, XX2 century
Are your teeth falling out? Perhaps dementia is not far off – a team of scientists from the USA came to such disappointing conclusions. The Americans studied the results of 14 long–term studies involving more than 34 thousand volunteers, and found that men and women complaining of tooth loss have a 1.48-fold increased risk of cognitive impairment and a 1.28-fold increased risk of dementia. An interesting fact: if a person's teeth have fallen out, but he has acquired prostheses, the risk of dementia is low.
In general, scientists say, with each tooth that falls out, the risk of cognitive impairment increases by 1.4%, and dementia – by 1.1%.
Article by Qi et al. Dose-Response Meta-Analysis on Tooth Loss With the Risk of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia is published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.
"Our findings highlight how important it is to maintain oral health… After all, the condition of the teeth affects our cognitive functions," the researchers summarize. At the same time, scientists do not give a clear answer exactly how tooth loss and the risk of dementia are related – they only assume that, for example, having lost teeth, a person can no longer eat the same food as before, and receives less nutrients.
Another hypothesis expressed by the lead author of the study Bei Wu, associated with a pathogenic bacterium Porphyromonas gingivalis. It has long been known that this bacterium causes various diseases of the oral cavity. In addition, scientists have previously suggested that Porphyromonas gingivalis may be responsible for Alzheimer's disease, among other things. Feedback is also possible: patients with dementia may find it difficult to take care of their teeth, and they begin to fall out. The authors of the work believe that further research is required to confirm the link between tooth loss and the risk of dementia, but it will not be superfluous to take care of your teeth right now.
According to WHO, there are about 50 million patients with dementia in the world. Most often (in 60-70% of cases) dementia occurs due to Alzheimer's disease and is one of the main causes of disability among older people around the world.
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