Dental hygiene key to predicting mortality, Japanese researchers find | Hacker News Reader

Dental hygiene key to predicting mortality, Japanese researchers find

japantimes.co.jp

35 pointsthunderbong14 comments

Once bacteria set up house deep inside a tooth, they are sheltered from the immune system while dispatching bacteria into the blood system. I've had infected tooth removed and found myself feeling a whole bunch better after.

Infection can spread to adjacent teeth or sneak in alongside a loose filling or underneath a crown.

A wobbly tooth is likely infected and you might want to get it out to protect adjacent teeth.

I had a root canal in my 20s that failed 10 years later and was replaced by a bridge that had to be replaced every decade or so until a tooth supporting the bridge failed; so I ended up with two implants.

Implant technology is really good today. You will ultimately save money and misery by going straight to an implant if a root canal or bridge is suggested. You will still need to floss to prevent gum loss.

Maybe a silly question, but do any science-y people know if studies like this make sure the inverse relationship isn't actually what's at play? Basically how do we know the actual relationship isn't that unhealthy people are less likely to take care of their teeth?

They don't, the study makes no claim as to a causal relationship

I don't know about this study but you could say take a bunch of people with bad teeth, leave the controls alone and have the others sorted by good dentists to see how it affected things for example.

Probably one of the single best investments of time and money you can make is on maintaining your teeth. Incredibly high "return" for relatively small "investment".

Even if you don't have good (or any) healthcare, simply thoroughly brushing and flossing everyday will make a world of differece. If you can scrape together a couple hundred bucks for cleanings once or twice a year, even better.

I spent years neglecting my teeth, really only brushing daily and doing nothing else. Once I started going to the dentist regularlyx I got incredibly lucky they weren't much worse. Minutes a day and a couple hundred a year will save you a lot of pain and money in the long run.

Aren't good teeth just a proxy for wealth, healthy habits, good nutrition, and generally good health and wellbeing?

Bad teeth also harbor bacteria that have been shown to exacerbate cardiovascular disease, at the very least. Not saying this article is claiming that as a casual mechanism, but diseased teeth are known to cause other systems to also become diseased.

There's a known causal relationship between mouth bacteria and heart disease. It's thought that mouth bacteria cause systemic inflammation, which leads to the damage that causes heart disease.

We'll likely find it also contributes to Alzheimer's (as, it seems, all pathogens and pollutants in the body seem to do).

Mostly, yes. Also genetics, what bacteria happen to colonize your mouth and what types of food you ate while your jaw was developing. That changes nothing about the article though, that dental hygiene can be used to predict mortality and aged care demands.

The correlation is the other way around, in my mind:

those that fall to acute infection, or indeed gut/systemic infection, will show poor oral hygiene,

and both are implicated in diseases that shorten life expectancy.

Idk, my cat's vet measures the cats age based on the plaque on their teeth. Pretty sure my cat's not wealthy and has a tendency to over-eat.

> Such declines are known to reduce food intake, physical strength and social interaction, all of which can accelerate health deterioration among older adults.

This is probably the key of causation

Not surprised. Mouth represents a huge surface area and it's also pretty close to the heart. Infections in mouth area can spread quickly to our core organs.

That's why you need to replace your baby's teeth with titanium spikes DAY ONE. They'll thank you tomorrow

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