Caries in the Teeth Can Reduce Your Lifespan

The Book

The Book - Atmasvasth - A Guide to Ageing Healthfully

A 15-point guide to living long, healthy

AtmasvasthBhavin Jankharia

The Detailed 15-Point Guide to Live Long, Healthy

The 15-Point Guide - Detailed

The detailed 15-points guide to live long, healthy

AtmasvasthBhavin Jankharia

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In April 2023, I wrote how your mouth is a mirror to your health.  This was a follow-up piece to the one I wrote in July 2021 about the relationship between periodontitis (bad gums) and high blood pressure. 

This is what I said, “The 2019 Global Burden of Diseases showed that three oral problems - edentulousness (loss of teeth), periodontitis (disease of the gums) and dental caries, are responsible for significant disability in the population and loss of working days [1]. A quarter of this is attributable to ageing. The Indian statistics are even more telling. A recent study based on the LASI cohort [2] showed that at least 77% of people above the age of 45 have at least one oral morbidity (tooth loss, tooth pain, periodontitis or caries), with those above the age of 60 having a three-fold increase in the incidence of oral disease compared to those between 45-59 years of age, while those above 75 years of age have a six-fold increase.”

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Last week, another paper was published by Souvik Sen and colleagues from the United States [3], where they used data from the ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) cohort to study the relationship between dental caries and coronary heart disease, stroke and death. They found that those who had more than 1 tooth with caries, had an increased risk of stroke and death as compared to those who had no caries. More importantly, regular dental care reduced the chance and incidence of caries.

This study showed that 1 in 5 American adults have untreated dental caries. The LASI cohort study quoted a similar number in those over 45 years of age, but with significant further increases in those over 60 and 70 years of age, though the exact numbers of the people with dental caries were not mentioned in the article.

People with access to good dental and overall healthcare will likely take care of their teeth much better than those who have poorer access. From a population health perspective therefore, it is important for the health authorities to include testing for oral diseases and managing oral hygiene better.

What does this mean for you and I? To reiterate. Good oral hygiene is an important part of our atmasvasth quest to live long healthy. This means a visit to a dentist at least once a year and not less than once in two years and letting the dentist treat any abnormality found (periodontitis, dental caries, teeth loss, etc) immediately.

Footnotes:

1. Patel J et al. Lancet Healthy Longev 2021;2:e521-527

2. Ghosal S et al. Clin Epidemiol Global Health 2022;18:101177

3. Sen S et al. Stroke 2024;55:40