FACTORS AFFECTING COGNITION IN INDIVIDUALS WITH TOOTH LOSS

Loss of teeth and chewing ability has been associated with cognitive decline in individuals at an older age, which is attributed to either the loss of the chewing reflex and its subsequent stimulation of brain centers or due to the absence of nutrition because of poor chewing ability. This can be aggravated by the lack of education, poor socioeconomic status, age, and female gender. We administered a questionnaire for our sample that consisted of individuals with more than 10 missing teeth, over the age of 45 to notice the associations between these aforementioned factors and cognitive ability, which was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination on these respondents. It was observed that gender, education levels, and socioeconomic status played a crucial role in cognitive decline whereas age and a further loss of tooth did not play any role in further loss of cognition, in our cross-sectional study. Given these results, it was concluded that our sample size demonstrated very clear trends of cognitive loss in individuals of the female gender, who were not educated or had primary level of education and came lower-class economic backgrounds. Furthermore, due to the nature of the study, it was noted that age and tooth loss did not have a major effect on the cognitive abilities of these individuals at the time, which is subject to change as their life progresses.