Sunday, March 1, 2015

Can Poor Oral Hygiene Affect your Memory?

If your memory seems to be slowing you down with misplaced reader’s part of your daily routine, it may have something to do with your oral hygiene habits. A recent study conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicates that bleeding gums and tooth loss may also affect thinking skills for people over the age of 45.

During the study, Gary Slade, co-author of the study, stated that, “We were interested to see if people with poor dental health had relatively poorer cognitive function.” In other words, how do your numbers and word management measure up when it comes to your memory. What the study discovered is mind-boggling.

Mr. Slade added, “What we found was that for every extra tooth that a person had lost or had removed, cognitive function went down a bit.” He also went on to say that, “People who had none of their teeth had poorer cognitive function that people who did have teeth, and people with fewer teeth had poorer cognition than those with more. The same was true when we looked at patients with severe gum disease.”

With analyzed data that was gathered from 1996 to 1998 with 6,000 men and women between the ages of 45 and 64, the authors and researchers discovered that the numbers for the thinking, memory, word fluency, word recall and skill with numbers tests was lower for people who had no natural teeth.

The study discovered that thirteen percent of those who participated had no natural teeth. Of those who had teeth, about one-fifth of the study had fewer than twenty remaining teeth. Over twelve percent had serious gum disease with deep gum pockets and bleeding gums.

The researchers of the study also discovered that folks who had more teeth and healthier gum tissue scored better on the tests.

As far as which came first, the chicken or the egg, researchers say that a poor diet lacking in foods that are rich in antioxidants could also be to blame for poor memory health. Combine the two and you may not be able to remember what day it is.

Because gingivitis and periodontitis inflames the gums, most doctors and dentists agree that the disease travels throughout your entire system, which will affect cognitive behavior and cognition.


If your memory isn’t what it used to be and you can’t remember the last time you saw your dentist, schedule an appointment with Country Club Dentistry today.