The eyes are a window to the soul, but the mouth may reveal just as much about a person’s health—and the diseases that shape how we age.
To better understand those connections, scientists are studying how issues that start in the mouth may contribute to chronic inflammation elsewhere in the body. In particular, they’re examining how bacteria from diseased gums, and the immune response they trigger, may contribute to conditions including heart disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, arthritis, respiratory disease and chronic liver disease.
The emerging science poses a challenge for healthcare, given the traditional divide between medicine and dentistry—fields that have long been divided by separate training, records and insurance systems. “Dentists haven’t traditionally been trained to think about whole-body health in relation to the mouth, and doctors haven’t been trained to see dental health as a first step to overall well-being,” says Dr. Jessica Lederhausen, a dentist and author of “Oral,” a book exploring the role of lifestyle on oral health.
But that is changing. Dental schools, which have taught how diseases like diabetes affect the mouth, are also placing greater emphasis on how oral disease can affect the rest of the body. Medical-education leaders have called on medical schools to better integrate oral health into physician training**.**
At the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, the Initiative to Integrate Oral Health and Medicine is researching how oral-health policy and health-system design can better support “whole-person care,” according to its director, Dr. Lisa Simon, who is both a dentist and a physician.
“We envision a future where a heart doctor asks patients if they are seeing their dentist regularly, and whether they are aware their periodontal disease could mean they have a much worse heart situation,” says Wenyuan Shi, an oral-microbiology researcher who heads the ADA Forsyth Institute, the research arm of the American Dental Association.
With better coordination, including shared medical and dental records, experts say, primary-care doctors might increasingly refer patients with diabetes or at high risk for heart disease to a dentist or periodontist for evaluation and treatment of gum disease. Meanwhile, more dentists may identify signs of uncontrolled diabetes and coordinate care with the patient’s physician.
The longevity link
The growing understanding of the mouth-body connection is also leading to new diagnostic tools, prevention strategies and treatments. And it is intensifying calls to provide more widespread coverage for preventive dental procedures, especially for older adults who are at highest risk.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half of all adults aged 30 years and older have periodontitis, the more serious type of gum disease that involves bone loss around teeth. But federal data also shows prevalence increases with age, when close to 60% of those 65 or older have some level of disease—just as people become more vulnerable to conditions that can dramatically affect a healthy lifespan. In turn, conditions such as diabetes can make gum disease more severe or harder to treat.
A 2023 review in the journal Biogerontology concluded that oral health plays a significant role in reaching “exceptional longevity,” in part because of its connection to inflammation. And research on adults 65 and older has found that oral diseases—including periodontal disease, tooth decay and tooth loss—remain a substantial source of years lived with disability, suggesting that oral health can shape the quality, not just the length, of later life.
Read the full story: Your Mouth Could Hold the Secrets to a Longer and Healthier Life (WSJ)