Poor dental health can cause brain shrinkage, Alzheimer's disease: Study

Poor dental health can lead to decline in brain volume and increase the risk of Alzheimers disease warned a studyThe study published in the journal Neurology found that gum disease and tooth loss were linked to brain shrinkage in the hippocampus which plays a role in memory and Alzheimers diseaseThe study however does not prove that gum disease or tooth loss causes Alzheimers disease it only shows an associationTooth 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 Satoshi Yamaguchi from Tohoku University in Sendai JapanOur 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 teethThe study involved 172 people with an average age of 67 who did not have memory problems at the beginning of the studyParticipants 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 laterResearchers found that the number of teeth and amount of gum disease was linked to changes in the left hippocampus of the brainFor people with mild gum disease having fewer teeth was associated with a faster rate of brain shrinkage in the left hippocampusHowever for people with severe gum disease having more teeth was associated with a faster rate of brain shrinkage in the same area of the brainAfter 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 ageingConversely for people with severe gum disease the increase in brain shrinkage due to one more tooth was equivalent to 13 years of brain ageingAnother recent study showed that skipping nighttime dental hygiene sessions can increase the risk of heart diseaseThese results highlight the importance of preserving the health of the teeth and not just retaining the teeth Yamaguchi saidControlling 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 devicesAlso Read Poor audio causes our brains to work 35 per cent harder to interpret informationThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever