Yusuke Matsuyama, a dentist at the Graduate School of Dentistry at Tohoku University, has revealed that people with a large number of teeth that can be retained in old age are healthy and live longer.
Previous studies have shown that more teeth have a lower mortality rate and are less likely to require long-term care, but the relationship with the duration of long-term care has not been clarified.Therefore, Dr. Matsuyama's research was conducted to clarify the relationship between the number of teeth before long-term care and the life expectancy, healthy life expectancy (a period without restrictions on daily life), and the period of long-term care.
In the survey, we analyzed the data of the elderly people aged 2010 and over who were not certified as requiring long-term care in 24 local governments nationwide for 65 years, and analyzed the data that responded to the 3 JAGES (Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study) survey. We investigated the relationship between the number of teeth before becoming ill and the life expectancy, healthy life expectancy (a period without restrictions on daily life), and the period of long-term care.
As a result of analyzing the data of 77,397 people (36,074 men and 41,323 women) who responded to the survey, if there are many teeth, not only the life expectancy is long, but also the healthy life expectancy is long, while the period of long-term care is short. It became clear that.The difference is the largest for those aged 85 and over, with those with 20 or more teeth having a healthy life expectancy of +0 days for men, +92 days for women, and +70 days for men and women compared to those with 57 teeth. It was found that there was a difference of +15 days, -35 days for men and -55 days for women.The results of this study indicate that maintaining dental health may contribute to extending healthy life expectancy and shortening the period of long-term care.
Journal of Dental Research] Dental status and compression of life expectancy with disability in Japan
