Preventing dementia is nothing more than using your brain and socializing more, but now I am afraid that you need to pay more attention to your oral health, and the Department of Dentistry of Yangming Jiaotong University published a report in the international medical journal "Ageing Research Review", and found that there is a lot of research evidence showing that severe periodontal disease, extensive edentulism and dementia are complexly related.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare estimates that Taiwan's dementia population exceeds 300,000, of which 96% are over 65 years old, dementia is a general term for a disease, not an aging phenomenon, the most well-known is Alzheimer's disease, because memory will decline, but also affect the cognitive function and personality behavior of the human brain, although most studies in the past have found that the deterioration of oral health is related to the risk of dementia, but the relationship between the two is still unclear.
The latest study by the Department of Dentistry of Yangming Jiaotong University systematically reviewed 28 studies analyzing oral health and cognitive dysfunction over a five-year period, and found that most of the studies mainly focused on the association between periodontal disease, oral microbiome and Alzheimer's disease, and more research evidence supports that serious oral health problems, such as severe periodontal disease and extensive edentulism, are indeed strongly associated with cognitive dysfunction.
There is a lack of consistent conclusions on other oral health issues, such as chewing function in older adults, and there is no stronger evidence to support whether oral health can prevent early or mild forms of dementia.
Lin Jiashu, the lead author of the study and a co-professor at the Department of Dentistry and the Institute of Brain Science at Yangming Jiaotong University, said that there is currently a big disagreement between oral health and brain cognitive dysfunction, but overall, oral problems such as large-scale edentulism or severe periodontal disease are most strongly associated with dementia.
For example, although missing teeth are related to dementia, it does not mean that dentures will necessarily prevent dementia, chewing more will definitely strengthen cognitive function, and the association between oral health and dementia cannot be reduced to brushing teeth to prevent dementia. ”
In fact, dementia is often also a gradual loss of self-care behavior, which also means that patients may not be able to maintain oral health care on their own, such as brushing their teeth and rinsing their mouths, which can lead to more serious oral problems as the disease progresses.
Lin Jiashu said that even though scientists are still unable to clarify the causal relationship, oral health still has a very important relationship with cognitive function, but most people are not aware of this association, so he hopes that people can pay more attention to the relationship between oral health and the mental health of the elderly, especially when taking care of the elderly.
First picture**: Yangming Jiaotong University).