NEW YORK (Dispatches) -- New York University researchers say that tooth loss is a risk factor for cognitive impairment and dementia -- and with each tooth lost, the risk of cognitive decline grows.
Bei Wu, PhD, Dean’s Professor in Global Health and her colleagues at at NYU conducted a meta-analysis using longitudinal studies of tooth loss and cognitive impairment. The 14 studies included in their analysis involved a total of 34,074 adults and 4,689 cases of people with diminished cognitive function.
They found that adults with more tooth loss had a 1.48 times higher risk of developing cognitive impairment and 1.28 times higher risk of being diagnosed with dementia, even after controlling for other factors.
However, adults missing teeth were more likely to have cognitive impairment if they did not have dentures (23.8 percent) compared to those with dentures (16.9 percent); a further analysis revealed that the association between tooth loss and cognitive impairment was not significant when participants had dentures.