Poor Oral Health May Lead To Memory Loss

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Brushing and flossing your teeth daily does more than help prevent cavities, gum disease and bad breath. According to the American Academy of Periodontology, having healthy teeth and gums also lowers your risk of heart disease and stroke. And now researchers at West Virginia University have found a clean mouth may also do something else... prevent memory loss. So far, the researchers have given oral exams and memory tests to 270 elderly people in more than a dozen West Virginia counties and discovered that about 23 percent of the group suffers from mild to moderate memory loss associated with dental and gum problems.

"This could have great implications for the health of our aging populations. With rates of Alzheimer's skyrocketing, imagine the benefits of knowing that keeping the mouth free of infection could cut down on cases of dementia," said Richard Crout, D.M.D., Ph.D., an expert on gum disease and associate dean for research in the WVU School of Dentistry, in a statement to the media. "Older people might want to know there's more reason to keep their mouths clean (i.e. brushing, flossing and seeing a dentist regularly) than ever."