The relationship between the number of remaining teeth and senile dementia: A pilot study

Min-Jeong Cho; Eun-Kyung Jung; Sang-Sook Lee; Youn-Hee Choi; Keun-Bae Song

doi:10.11149/jkaoh.2015.39.3.214

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Cho, Jung, Lee, Choi, and Song: The relationship between the number of remaining teeth and senile dementia: A pilot study

Original Article

J Korean Acad Oral Health 2015;39(3):214-219.

Published online: 12 September 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.11149/jkaoh.2015.39.3.214

The relationship between the number of remaining teeth and senile dementia: A pilot study

Min-Jeong Cho¹, Eun-Kyung Jung², Sang-Sook Lee³, Youn-Hee Choi¹, Keun-Bae Song¹

¹Department of Preventive Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea

²Department of Dental Hygiene, Ulsan College, Ulsan, Korea

³Namgu Public Health Center, Daegu, Korea

Corresponding Author: Keun-Bae Song Department of Preventive Dentistry, Kyungpook National University, 2177 Dalgubeol-daero, Jung-gu, Daegu 41940, Korea Tel: +82-53-660-6870 Fax: +82-53-423-2947 E-mail: kbsong@knu.ac.kr

Received 28 August 2015 Revised 9 September 2015 Accepted 16 September 2015

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Objectives

Recently, studies aiming to improve the quality of life of the elderly have become more common. In the aging population, oral health is an important consideration for overall good systemic health. Oral health is closely related to general health and should not be ignored. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are associations between the mastication level and number of remaining teeth and the cognitive function. These associations were investigated using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score and the results of oral examinations in elderly individuals.

Methods

Participants who were aged over 60 years and living in Daegu city underwent oral examination for assessing their oral condition; their cognitive function was evaluated using the MMSE. The collected data were analyzed using the chi-square test, t-test, and logistic regression in SPSS. Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between the MMSE score and the number of remaining teeth, and the 95% confidence intervals were computed.

Results

Although a significant relationship was found between the number of remaining teeth and the MMSE score, the differences were not large. The odds ratio (OR) when the number of remaining teeth was 0-10 was 3.02 (95% confidence interval: 1.200-7.581).

Conclusions

This study showed a slight but significant relationship between the MMSE score and the number of remaining teeth in elderly individuals.

Keywords: Dementia, Mastication, Remaining tooth

References

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Table 1.

General characteristics of the subjects

Variable		N (%)
Gender	Male	94 (51.1)
	Female	90 (48.9)
Age	60-69	142 (77.2)
	70-79	35 (19.0)
	≥80	7 (3.8)
Residence	Spouse	95 (51.6)
	Spouse & children	40 (21.7)
	Children	14 (7.6)
	Alone	35 (19.1)
Education	≤Elementary school	78 (42.4)
	Middle school	54 (29.3)
	High school	37 (20.1)
	≥College school	15 (8.2)
Denture	Use	46 (25.0)
	No use	138 (75.0)
Number of teeth	0-10	22 (12.0)
	11-20	32 (17.3)
	≥21	130 (70.7)
General masticatory level	Cannot chew very well	70 (38.0)
	Can chew most foods	43 (23.4)
	Can anything	71 (38.6)
Specific masticatory level	Cannot chew very well	45 (24.5)
	Can chew most foods	63 (34.2)
	Can anything	76 (41.3)
Mini-Mental State Examination	<27	62 (33.7)
	≥27	122 (66.3)

Table 2.

Characteristics of the subjects according to MMSE score (N/%

Variable	MMSE Score		P-value
Variable	<27	≥27	P-value
Gender
Male	27 (43.5)	67 (54.9)
Female	35 (56.5)	55 (45.1)	0.145
Age
60-69	41 (66.1)	101 (82.8)
70-79	16 (25.8)	19 (15.6)	0.017
≥80	5 (8.1)	2 (1.6)
Residence
Spouse	30 (48.4)	65 (53.3)
Spouse & children	12 (19.4)	28 (23.0)	0.515
Children	7 (11.2)	7 (5.7)
Alone	13 (21.0)	22 (18.0)
Education
≤Elementary school	38 (61.3)	40 (32.8)
Middle school	14 (22.6)	40 (32.8)
High school	9 (14.5)	28 (23.0)	0.001
≥College school	1 (1.6)	14 (11.4)
Denture
No use	39 (62.9)	99 (81.1)
Use	23 (37.1)	23 (18.9)	0.007
Number of teeth
0-10	12 (19.3)	10 (8.2)
11-20	13 (21.0)	19 (15.6)	0.038
≥21	37 (59.7)	93 (76.2)
General masticatory level
Cannot chew very well	30 (48.4)	40 (32.8)
Can chew most foods	9 (14.5)	34 (27.9)	0.054
Can anything	23 (37.1)	48 (39.3)
Specific masticatory level
Cannot chew very well	9 (15.0)	24 (19.4)
Can chew most foods	28 (46.7)	44 (35.5)	0.340
Can anything	23 (38.3)	56 (45.1)

P-value are determined from chi-square test.

Table 3.

Comparison of masticatory level with MMSE score

Viriable	MMSE score		P-value
	Dementia	Healthy
	<27	≥27
General masticatory level Specific masticatory level	3.16±1.59	3.57±1.47	0.088
Dried squid	3.34±1.62	3.69±1.59	0.162
Carrot	3.92±1.39	4.30±1.21	0.054
Peanut	4.23±1.18	4.36±1.16	0.459
Kkakdugi	4.11±1.29	4.38±1.07	0.143
Caramel	3.98±1.30	4.31±1.14	0.081
Total	3.92±1.23	4.21±1.11	0.105
Number of teeth	19.40±9.12	22.25±6.63	0.032

Values presented mean±SD. P-value are determined from t-test.

Table 4.

Masticatory level according to number of remaining teeth

Viriable	Number of remaining teeth			P-value
Viriable	0-10	11-20	≥21	P-value
General masticatory level	2.91±1.54^a	2.47±1.59^a	3.75±1.38^b	<0.001
Specific masticatory level
Dried squid	2.45±1.57^a	2.81±1.71^a	3.95±1.43^b	<0.001
Carrot	3.36±1.65^a	3.78±1.50^a	4.41±1.07^b	<0.001
Peanut	3.45±1.68^a	3.88±1.43^a	4.57±0.85^b	<0.001
Kkakdugi	3.45±1.60^a	3.88±1.41^a	4.53±0.88^b	<0.001
Caramel	3.27±1.52^a	3.56±1.52^a	4.52±0.88^b	<0.001
Total	3.20±1.41^a	3.58±1.36^a	4.39±0.91^b	<0.001
MMSE	25.77±3.48^a	26.31±2.09^a,b	27.20±2.23^b	0.013

Values presented mean±SD. P-value by one-way ANOVA,

^a,b denoted by Scheffe's test post-hoc analysis.

Table 5.

Logistic regression analysis of number of remaining teeth and MMSE score

Variables	Model 1		Model 2		Model 3
Variables	OR	95%CI	OR	95% CI	OR	95% CI
Number of teeth
≥21	ref.		ref.		ref.
11-20	1.720	0.771-3.834	1.524	0.663-3.502	1.066	0.398-2.855
0-10	3.016*	1.200-7.581	2.640*	1.001-6.967	1.371	0.389-4.831

Model 1: Unadjusted model. Model 2: Age & sex adjusted model. Model 3: Age, sex, residence, education & denture usage adjusted model. CI, Confidence interval; OR, Odds ratio. *P<0.05.

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