Evaluation of the Relationship Between Oral Health, Chewing Ability, and Degree of Disease in Alzheimer-Type Dementia Patients

Abstract

Introduction:The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship among oral health attitudes, chewing efficiency, and the degree of disease in patients with Alzheimer-type dementia.Materials and Methods: Thirty-nine patients with Alzheimer-type dementia as the study group and 38 cognitively healthy participants as the control group were registered for this cross-sectional study. The participants' demographics and basic clinical features, oral health attitudes, and chewing efficiency scores were recorded for the analysis, and then the evaluation was done comparatively between the groups.Results: A total of 77 participants were included the study. The mean ages of the healthy (control) and Alzheimer-type dementia (study) groups were determined as 69.28 ± 3.31 and 67.10 ± 2.11 years, respectively. The chewing scores of the healthy and Alzheimer-type dementia groups were compared, and the scores of Alzheimer-type dementia group showed significantly lower values than the scores of the healthy group (p<0.001). Not using dentures despite tooth loss for both the mandibula and maxilla was found to be significantly higher in the Alzheimer-type dementia group than it was in the healthy group (p<0.001). Conclusion:The study showed a negative correlation between oral health attitudes, chewing efficiency, and the degree of disease in patients with Alzheimer-type dementia. Poor chewing efficiency may be related to the progress of Alzheimer-type dementia. Healthy chewing functions can support cognitive abilities. Thus, prosthetic treatment can be considered a protective factor against Alzheimer-type dementia.