Dental News - Frequency of dental visits dramatically decreases after dementia diagnosis

Dental Tribune International

Tue. 1. August 2017

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STOCKHOLM, Sweden: Patients with dementia tend to abandon regular dental check-ups, the results of a large-scale longitudinal study have revealed.

Therefore, the utilisation of dental health services as well as the research group’s general oral health status significantly declined after a diagnosis of dementia was made, researchers from the Karolinska Institutet have found. The results are especially alarming, since studies have linked neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s—a specific form of dementia—with a higher risk of developing several oral conditions, including periodontal disease. In addition to the dramatic decrease in the number of dental visits before and after a dementia diagnosis, the researchers found that a reduction in the utilisation of dental health services was more predominant in patients who experienced a more rapid degeneration of cognitive function, said Prof. Maria Eriksdotter from the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society at the Karolinska Institutet.

“It may be the case that patients forget to visit the dentist or put other types of health care first, as dental care is separate from other medical services,” Prof. Gunilla Sandborgh Englund from the Department of Dental Medicine commented on the findings. “We require better organisation to detect these patients and ensure that they attend their dental health check-ups.”

The study, titled “Dental care utilization in patients with different types of dementia. A longitudinal nationwide study of 58,037 individuals”, was published online on 8 July in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

The researchers examined data from over 58,000 persons registered in the Swedish Dementia Registry between 2007 and 2015. Additional dental health data was obtained from the National Dental Health Registry.

Due to the global ageing population’s trend, implementing measures for good oral health among the elderly population, especially when physical and cognitive abilities diminish over time, is one of the key challenges of geriatrics and dentistry today. Common dental conditions associated with aging include xerostomia, root and coronal caries and periodontitis as well as an increased sensitivity to local anaesthetics and analgesics.

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