People who have dental implants for extensive tooth loss should also be monitored for later development of dementia, new research has suggested.
According to a study carried out in Japan and published in the journal Behavioral and Brain Functions, elderly people whose teeth fall out could be at an increased risk of developing problems such as Alzheimer's disease.
Those aged 65 or over with few or no teeth, whether they had been replaced by dental implants or not, were much more likely to have experienced some memory loss.
Dr Nozomi Okamoto, who led the research, said infections in the gums which cause tooth loss could also enter the bloodstream and cause inflammation in the brain, leading to the death of neurons.
According to the Alzheimer's Society, there are currently 750,000 people with dementia in the UK, a figure that will rise to one million by 2025 as a result of an ageing population.
