Links Between Oral Bacteria and Dementia. Plus Related Issues.

This is a link to an article by Mario D. Garret PhD on the "Psychology Today" website, describing various pieces of research on links between dental infections and dementia. It's worth a read. There seems to be more of a connection to Alzheimer's Disease than Vascular Dementia, so far, but the blog author intends to go on looking, as anything that involves inflammation in the neck might contribute to vascular dementia.

While hunting for articles on this subject, the blog author came across quite a lot of material indicating that people who already have dementia, suffer worse problems (especially memory loss) if they then get an infection of almost any sort. The main suspects are chest infections and UTIs, but references are also made to common colds and, well, practically everything. It seems likely that dental infections are equally damaging once a patient actually has dementia, but this does not address the question of whether or not dental infections can actually lead to dementia, for which see Dr Garret's article.

Unfortunately, the blog author also came across reams of material about how difficult it is to protect dementia patients and others who are simply elderly, from dental infections. Mainly because they are not always able to undertake basic dental hygiene tasks for themselves, but also because they cannot tell carers that they have a dental infection, or a UTI for that matter. The better care homes test frequently for the latter on general principles, but this is not a universal practice and there's no urine test for toothache! There's a fair amount of advice on how to provide dental care for those with dementia, but it's not the easiest thing in the world to actually do.

The blog author intends, when he has time, to wade through the material a bit and find some useful links that cut to the chase on this matter. But it does seem to be common sense that the better state your teeth are in when you enter old age, the longer you will have before dental infections become an issue. And the more that dental hygiene becomes an ingrained habit, the longer into old age that you will keep doing it. So getting the young into the right habits isn't just important, it's more important than we might imagine.

There is also material out there suggesting that patients with thyroid problems are more likely to get dental infections than those with a healthy thyroid. Again, when the blog author has time to research a good and useful link on the subject, it will be put up here. Because many thyroid problems are now being linked to bromine-base fire retardants that were at one time mandatory on furniture in the UK (and most of Europe), we may yet see a peak in the number of people with relevant thyroid problems.

Perhaps if dental practitioners see patients who get lots of dental infections, they might ask the patient's GP to do a thyroxine level test? It's good practice in middle-aged patients anyway.