Taking good care of your teeth may be good for your brain
Poor dental health linked to decline in brain volume

Date:
July 5, 2023
Source:
American Academy of Neurology
Summary:
Taking good care of your teeth may be linked to better brain health,
according to a new study. The study found that gum disease and
tooth loss were linked to brain shrinkage in the hippocampus,
which plays a role in memory and Alzheimer's disease. The study
does not prove that gum disease or tooth loss causes Alzheimer's
disease; it only shows an association.


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FULL STORY ========================================================================== Taking good care of your teeth may be linked to better brain health,
according to a study published in the July 5, 2023, online issue
of Neurology(R), the medical journal of the American Academy of
Neurology. The study found that gum disease and tooth loss were linked
to brain shrinkage in the hippocampus, which plays a role in memory and Alzheimer's disease. The study does not prove that gum disease or tooth
loss causes Alzheimer's disease; it only shows an association.

"Tooth loss and gum disease, which is inflammation of the tissue around
the teeth that can cause shrinkage of the gums and loosening of the
teeth, are very common, so evaluating a potential link with dementia
is incredibly important," said study author Satoshi Yamaguchi, PhD,
DDS, of Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. "Our study found that these conditions may play a role in the health of the brain area that controls thinking and memory, giving people another reason to take better care
of their teeth." The study involved 172 people with an average age of
67 who did not have memory problems at the beginning of the study.

Participants had dental exams and took memory tests at the beginning of
the study. They also had brain scans to measure volume of the hippocampus
at the beginning of the study and again four years later.

For each participant, researchers counted the number of teeth and checked
for gum disease by looking at periodontal probing depth, a measurement
of the gum tissue. Healthy readings are from one to three millimeters.

Mild gum disease involves probing depths of three or four millimeters
in several areas, while severe gum disease involves probing depths of
five or six millimeters in several areas as well as more bone loss and
can cause teeth to become loose and eventually fall out.

Researchers found that the number of teeth and amount of gum disease
was linked to changes in the left hippocampus of the brain.

For people with mild gum disease having fewer teeth was associated with
a faster rate of brain shrinkage in the left hippocampus.

However, for people with severe gum disease having more teeth was
associated with a faster rate of brain shrinkage in the same area of
the brain.

After adjusting for age, researchers found that for people with mild gum disease, the increase in the rate of brain shrinkage due to one less
tooth was equivalent to nearly one year of brain aging. Conversely,
for people with severe gum disease the increase in brain shrinkage due
to one more tooth was equivalent to 1.3 years of brain aging.

"These results highlight the importance of preserving the health of the
teeth and not just retaining the teeth," Yamaguchi said. "The findings
suggest that retaining teeth with severe gum disease is associated with
brain atrophy.

Controlling the progression of gum disease through regular dental visits
is crucial, and teeth with severe gum disease may need to be extracted
and replaced with appropriate prosthetic devices." Yamaguchi said future studies are needed with larger groups of people. Another limitation
of the study is that it was conducted in one region of Japan, so the
results may not be generalizable to other locations.

The study was supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology; Keio University; Japan Arteriosclerosis Prevention Fund; Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare;
Teikyo University; Pfizer Japan; Bayer Yakuhin; Chugai Pharmaceutical;
Daiichi Sankyo; Astellas Pharma; Takeda Pharmaceutical; Health Care
Science Institute; Health Science Center; and Takeda Science Foundation.

* RELATED_TOPICS
o Health_&_Medicine
# Dentistry # Healthy_Aging # Diseases_and_Conditions #
Alzheimer's_Research
o Mind_&_Brain
# Disorders_and_Syndromes # Alzheimer's # Neuroscience
# Dementia
* RELATED_TERMS
o Alzheimer's_disease o Dementia_with_Lewy_bodies o
Dental_caries o Urinary_incontinence o Periodontal_disease
o Parkinson's_disease o Excitotoxicity_and_cell_damage o
Extraction_(dental)

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========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Satoshi Yamaguchi, Takahisa Murakami, Michihiro Satoh, Takamasa
Komiyama,
Takashi Ohi, Yoshitada Miyoshi, Kosei Endo, Takako Hiratsuka,
Azusa Hara, Yukako Tatsumi, Tomoko Totsune, Kei Asayama, Masahiro
Kikuya, Kyoko Nomura, Atsushi Hozawa, Hirohito Metoki, Yutaka Imai,
Makoto Watanabe, Takayoshi Ohkubo, Yoshinori Hattori. Associations
of Dental Health With the Progression of Hippocampal Atrophy in
Community-Dwelling Individuals: The Ohasama Study. Neurology,
2023; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000207579 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230705171101.htm

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