A study was presented at the 52nd AADOCR Annual Meeting and Exposition, in conjunction with the 47th CADR Annual Meeting, to determine whether replacing missing teeth with fixed prosthetics can protect against cognitive decline . The AADOCR/CADR Annual Meeting and Exposition was held at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland from March 15-18, 2023.
The study by Elizabeth Kaye of Boston University examined 577 men in the Normative Aging Study (NAS) and the VA Dental Longitudinal Study. The condition of the teeth and the type of replacement, if any, were recorded at the triennial dental examinations (1969-2001).
- Chewing efficacy was evaluated with carrot chewing tests. The spatial copy task (SCT) was administered up to four times between 1995 and 2001.
- The researchers defined poor cognition as any weighted SCT score <13 (the lowest tertile of baseline SCT scores across all NAS participants).
Cox proportional regression at the tooth level, which takes into account clustering within individuals, estimated the risk of poor cognition, adjusted for education, use of epilepsy medications, and time-varying values of tooth status ( present, absent, fixed bridge/implant, removable replacement), age, smoking and coronary heart disease.
The mean age at the initial cognitive test was 68 ± 7 years . Forty-five percent of the men had at least a low SCT score. 29% of participants did not lose any teeth during follow-up, 34% lost teeth that were not replaced, 13% lost teeth that were later replaced with fixed dentures, and 25% lost teeth that were replaced with removable dentures.
- New fixed prostheses were associated with a lower risk (HR=0.72, 95% CI=0.52-0.99) of poor cognition, while new removable prostheses were associated with a higher risk (HR=1 .26, 95% CI=1.01-1.56).
- Tooth loss without replacement was not associated with a significantly increased risk (HR = 1.05, 95% CI = 0.91-1.21) of poor cognition.
- Chewing ability decreased by 6% in men with new fixed dentures compared to 9%, 10%, and 13% in men without tooth loss, new removable dentures.
The study found that replacing missing teeth with fixed prostheses may protect against cognitive decline , and preservation of chewing ability may play a role in the protective association .
This research was presented as part of the interactive talk "Fixed prosthetic replacements can reduce the risk of cognitive decline" , which took place on Thursday, March 16, 2023 at 8:00 am Pacific Time (UTC-07:00) during the “Oral and General Health” session from 8 am to 9:30 am
About AADOCR
The American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to advance dental, oral, and craniofacial research to promote health and well-being. AADOCR represents the individual scientists, clinical scientists, dental professionals, and students from academic, government, nonprofit, and private sector institutions who share our mission. AADOCR is the largest division of the International Association for Dental Research. Learn more at www.aadocr.org.
