Impact of teeth and denture prostheses on cognitive functioning in Elderly population

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Syed Ershad Ahmed

Sri Ramakrishna Dental College and Hospital, India

: Int J Ment Health Psychiatry

Abstract

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Statement of the problem: Tooth loss frequently occurs in patients with dental caries, periodontal diseases, and tumours, traumatism accompanied by masticatory dysfunction, poor absorption, pronunciation difficulty and anile appearance. It has been reported that the trigeminal nerve innervates the periodontal ligament and masticatory muscle, and that when trigeminal nerve sensory information is attenuated due to multiple tooth loss, higher brain activities such as learning and memory are inhibited. The deterioration of the occlusal force and the shift of mandibular position are directly related to decreases in the masticatory muscle function. Tooth loss may induce neurodegenerative cognitive decline which has been speculated to be a major risk factor for cognitive impairment, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, while chewing disability has also been reported to have effects on cognitive decline activities of daily living, quality of life and physical functions. Oral reconstruction using denture prosthesis may prevent cognitive decline due to tooth loss, as use of a denture positively activates chewing-related cortices for prefrontal and parietal sensorimotor cognitive control, Methodology: The research was a prospective study; completely edentulous patients of age groups above 60 yrs. were taken in the present study group. Pre and post cognitive assessments were done to the patients that are before and after prosthetic rehabilitation (replacement of missing teeth).These assessments were done on time duration of 2 weeks and 3 months. Findings: The scores of Dental Cognitive function evaluation after 2 weeks were 12.6 and 14.53 respectively. Mean differences of, Dental Cognitive function evaluation (1.96) were observed after 2 weeks and 3 months of Prosthesis function Conclusion: The inference obtained from the findings suggest that replacement of missing teeth by denture prostheses enhances the cognitive functioning in elderly population which can eventually reduce the occurrence of dementia

Biography

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Dr.Syed Ershad Ahmed, currently working as Associate Professor in the department of Prosthodontics at Sri Ramakrishna Dental College, Coimbatore. He has completed his undergraduate (BDS) and Postgraduate (MDS) from Ragas Dental College, Chennai (The Tamilnadu Dr.MGR medical university). He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. (Prosthodontics) from Vinayaka Missions Research Foundation, Salem. He has done an extensive research in the field of cognitive behavioural function among geriatric patients. Has a patent and copyright in introducing a novel method of cognitive functioning assessment tool. Has credit of research and case report publications indexed in Web of science, Scopus and PubMed central. He is also reviewer in many journals such as Journal of Indian Prosthodontic Society (JIPS), Cureus journal, Journal of clinical and diagnostic research, SAGE Publication journals. Has given lectures and conducted workshops at state and national level. He has guided many minor research projects for undergraduate and post graduate students.