Beyond dentistry: could prevention and screening for neurodegenerative diseases start in the dental office?

The differential diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases is complex and relies on clinical assessment,biomarker levels in cerebrospinal fluid,neuroimaging and neuropsychological assessment.The efforts of the scientific community are focused on two aspects:a)the discovery of minimally invasive biomarkers;b)the discovery of early biomarkers that can predict the progression to clinical disease in the pre-symptomatic stage of a disease.Considering the impact of the number of patients affected by chronic neurodegenerative diseases on public health expenditures,early diagnosis seems to be a primary need of our society.