Take care of your teeth help your mind: Study finds keeping teeth with severe gum disease is associated with atrophy of the brain

Taking care of your teeth could also mean taking care of your brain. A study published today says gum disease and tooth loss are linked to shrinkage in the hippocampus, a part of the brain that "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," says the American Academy of Neurology, which published the study in its journal, Neurology.

“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 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 researchers studied 172 people with an average age of 67 who reported no memory problems at the beginning of the study, when they had dental examinations, memory tests and brain scans to measure volume of the hippocampus. Another scan was done four years later.

"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," the AAN reports. "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."

Yamaguchi said, “These results highlight the importance of preserving the health of the teeth and not just retaining the teeth. 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.”