Influence of denture treatment on brain function activity

Cognitive status of edentate elders wearing complete denture: Does quality of denture matter?

“…Our study results are in line with the results of case-series [17,20,27], cross-sectional [33], and longitudinal cohort studies [13,23,25], indicating that the quality of dentures [17,20,27], masticatory disability [33], and use of dentures [13,23,25] can be considered as an early marker of physical and cognitive status of elders in different populations. These studies included samples of elders from the United States [13,23], Sweden [33], and Japan [25], with follow-up periods from 4 [25] to 18 years [13].…”

“…Furthermore, the trigeminal nerve stimulus is increased when an individual with adequate denture chews well [17,20,27]. In fact, the sensory information that is sent through mastication to the brain can maintain the learning and memory function of the brain [9].…”

“…Poor oral health and nonoptimal mastication have been introduced as potential modifiable risk factors for cognitive impairment [9][10][11][12][13][14]. In fact, the regular sensory stimulation in the course of mastication increases the cerebral blood flow and the number of pyramidal cells in the hippocampus [15][16][17][18][19][20]. This region of the brain is important for the formation and retrieval of episodic memory in humans [21,22].…”

“…Accordingly, an association between tooth number and cognitive status has been reported [11,13,14,[23][24][25][26]. Furthermore, a number of case-series suggest that restoration of tooth loss and masticatory function by adequate prosthesis can lead to an improvement in functional brain activity [17,20,27]. However, to our knowledge there is no solid evidence on the role of functional quality of denture in the cognitive status of edentate elders.…”

Interactions between occlusion and human brain function activities

“…Hosoi et al. (47) suggested changes in occlusal force may possibly affect brain function from the fact that there is a positive correlation between increase in occlusal force caused by wearing of dentures and the degree of activity of brain function. Without setting of any defined control group, however, it may be possible that attachment of a denture or a splint has specifically stimulated mechanoreceptors to cause differences in brain activity.…”