By Lauren Burns
It's well known and preached, especially among the dental community, that poor oral health is associated with other serious health conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, but now a new study suggests that it may be linked to dementia.
Researchers studied a group of around 5,500 healthy elderly men and women in California over 18 years and found that, of those who professed to brushing their teeth less than once a day, there were more cases of dementia (about 1 in every 3.7 women), including Alzeimer's, than in the group that professed to brushing more than once a day, 1 in every 4.5 women developed dementia. The correlation was less pronounced in men, but there was still a 22% increase in dementia for irregular brushers.
Read about the correlation between oral care and dementia.
