Poor Dental Health May Lead To Brain Shrinkage: Study

Taking good care of your teeth is important for better brain health. Japanese researchers have found tooth loss and gum disease associated with shrinkage of brain area that controls thinking and memory.

Not only poor oral hygiene can make you prone to developing dental cavities and gum disease, but it can also increase your risk of many other health problems such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Now, a new study by Japanese researchers has linked poor dental health to decline in brain volume, suggesting that taking good care of our teeth is important for better brain health.

Researchers at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, found gum disease and tooth loss associated with brain shrinkage in the hippocampus, which plays a role in memory and Alzheimer’s disease. Does it mean gum disease or tooth loss can cause Alzheimer’s disease? The study doesn’t confirm that, it only shows an association.

The report on the study was published in the online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Can poor dental health contribute to dementia?

Since tooth loss and gum disease are very common problems, the Tohoku University researchers felt it important to evaluate if these conditions may play a role in dementia, which affects millions of people worldwide.

They indeed found that tooth loss and gum disease were linked to shrinkage of brain area that controls thinking and memory.

For the study, the researchers took dental exams, memory tests and brain scans of 172 participants (average age of 67), at the beginning of the study and again after four years. None of the participants had memory problems at the beginning of the study.

When they compared the test results taken at the beginning of the study and four years later, they found an associated between tooth loss and gum disease and changes in the left hippocampus of the brain.

A faster rate of brain shrinkage in the left hippocampus was observed in both people with mild gum disease having fewer teeth (equivalent to nearly one year of brain aging) and those with severe gum disease having more teeth (equivalent to 1.3 years of brain aging).

It is important to preserve the health of the teeth and not just retain the teeth, study author Satoshi Yamaguchi noted.