Caries in the Teeth Can Reduce Your Lifespan

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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.”