Oral Health Conditions in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

Abstract

AnalysesWe compared the case group with the control group using the unconditional logistic regression model 17 adjusted for sex and age. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were estimated. We also conducted stratified analysis by sex and age group using this model. The 2 test and the Cochran-MantelHaenzel test were used for simple and stratified analyses of knowledge of oral health among PD patients, respectively. Tests of statistical significance were based on two-sided P values, and the -error was set at the 5% level. The SAS ® system (ver. 8) was employed for the analysis. 17Results from a case-control study Table 2 shows results using the unconditional logistic regression model, in men and women after adjusting for age, and in young elderly (from 60 to 69 years old) and old elderly (over 70 years old) after adjusting for age and sex.As shown in Table 2, more PD patients complained of chewing difficulties (OR = 6.0, 95% CI:2.8-12.8) after adjustment for sex and age. After adjusting for age, more PD patients complained of them than controls among both men (OR = 14.5, 95% CI:3.0-69.1) and women (OR = 4.2, 95% CI:1.7-10.5). In addition, more PD patients complained of chewing difficulties (young: OR = 4.5, 95% CI:1.6-12.3; old: OR = 8.9, 95% CI:2.5-32.0) than controls in both young and old elderly.Persons without their own teeth were more commonly seen among the PD patients than in the control group adjusted for sex and age (OR = 3.5, 95%CI:1.8-6.8). PD patients more commonly lacked their own teeth than controls in both sexes after adjusting for age (men: OR = 3.6, 95% CI:1.0-12.0; women: OR = 3.5, 95% CI:1.6-7.7). Among the old elderly, those without their own teeth were more commonly seen among PD patients than controls after adjusting for age and sex (OR = 4.1, 95% CI:1.8-9.3).Among the young elderly, more PD patients complained of swollen gums than controls after adjusting for age and sex.There were no differences between the two groups about having their own family dentists. Of the PD patients, 71 (68%) had their own family dentists.More PD patients complained of denture discomfort (OR = 3.9, 95% CI:1.9-8.0) than controls after adjustment for sex and age. Although the proportion of those who complained of denture discomfort did not differ between the two groups for men, more female PD patients complained of denture discomfort than female controls. More PD patients complained of denture discomfort (young: OR = 2.9, 95% CI:1.0-8.5; old: OR = 5.0, 95% CI:1.8-13.9) than controls in both the young and old elderly.

Increased periodontal pathology in Parkinson's disease

“…A recent case control study in Japan showed that patients with PD have fewer teeth and also did not clean their dentures as regularly as controls [14]. Accordingly, severe dental problems were reported in all participants of a Greek survey [2].On the other hand,in a small group of Parkinson's disease outpatients, patients had more teeth compared with controls [6].Kennedy and co-workers investigated dental plaques in 14 patients and 14 controls.Although there were only minor differences in oral microflora, Parkinson's disease patients showed significantly more pronounced mucositis [10].…”

Parkinson’s disease impairs masticatory function

“…For PD patients, loss of neuromuscular control must be considered a major contributory factor in the loss of stability of complete dentures [15]. Previous studies [15,16] reported that PD patients have chewing difficulties, denture discomfort [16], and problems such as poor denture control [15]. Impaired masticatory performance [13], coupled with denture-related problems, may compound the existing difficulties that PD patients have in eating and swallowing [17].…”

Increased frequencies of caries, periodontal disease and tooth loss in patients with Parkinson’s disease

“…7,8 Oral health of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) has also been studied with contradictory results. [9][10][11][12][13] Patients with PD may experience difficulty in maintaining oral hygiene due to several factors: motor impairment, dysphagia, apathy, depression, dementia, hypersialorrhea, xerostomia and medication. Some publications have reported a high incidence of patients with PD with deteriorating dental status, [9][10][11] whereas others have reported a smaller chance of patients with PD developing tooth loss and caries.…”