Relationship between skeletal bone mineral density and subjective masticatory difficulty

Abstract

Background Masticatory ability is an essential factor for sustaining quality of life and social and systemic well-being, particularly in elderly. This study aimed to reveal the association between subjective masticatory difficulty and skeletal bone mineral density (BMD). Methods Data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which was conducted from 2008 to 2011 were analyzed. This study included 13,092 Koreans (5656 males, 7436 females) over 50 years of age. Masticatory difficulty was evaluated based on a self-reported questionnaire. Areal BMD of the total hip, femoral neck, and lumbar spine as well as lean body mass were determined using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Data about the sociodemographic characteristics, physical activity, number of teeth present, sum of decayed, missing, and filled permanent teeth (DMFT) index and Community Periodontal Index (CPI) were collected. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to analyze associations between subjective masticatory difficulty and BMD, adjusting for the confounding covariates. Results Significant differences were observed in the areal BMD of the total hip, femoral neck, and lumbar spine as well as lean body mass accordance with the presence of subjective masticatory difficulty in both males and females. The number of teeth, DMFT, and CPI score did not show significant differences based on the presence of self-reported satisfaction of chewing performance in both males and females. Results from multivariate logistic regression demonstrated that the subjective masticatory difficulty showed significant interactions with skeletal BMD and the associations between masticatory satisfaction and BMD of the total hip and femoral neck were more prominent in females compared to those in males. Conclusions The skeletal BMD, particularly areal BMD of the femoral neck was significantly associated with subjective masticatory difficulty in elderly, especially in elder females.

Protein Intake and Oral Health in Older Adults—A Narrative Review

“…Furthermore, higher soy protein intake in rats resulted in increased bone mineral density (BMD) under nonenergy deficiency [ 87 ]. Increased BMD may be an indicator of good oral health status in humans [ 88 , 89 ].…”

Associations between oral health status and risk of fractures in elder adults

“…Many efforts have been attempted to determine the risk factors for falls and fractures. Previous studies have demonstrated the strong relationships among oral health-related factors, the incidence of falls, amount of skeletal muscle mass, frailty, skeletal BMD, physical performance, and mortality rate in the elderly population 5 – 22 , 27 . Even though, the fragmentary associations between those factors have been reported previously, the integrated knowledge of interactions among the above factors has not been thoroughly discussed.…”

“…Oral health condition, bone mineral density (BMD), skeletal muscle mass, and frailty seem to be strongly interconnected 5 – 22 . The decreased number of teeth has been shown to have significant correlations with the amount of skeletal muscle mass, handgrip strength, and gait speed in the elderly 8 , 10 , 17 , 19 .…”

“…The decreased number of teeth has been shown to have significant correlations with the amount of skeletal muscle mass, handgrip strength, and gait speed in the elderly 8 , 10 , 17 , 19 . Furthermore, the link between oral health status and skeletal BMD has also been discussed 7 , 9 , 12 – 16 , 22 . Finally, poor oral health can result in increased physical frailty, disability, and mortality rate 5 , 6 , 11 , 18 , 21 .…”