Tian, Qu.; Qi, Xiang.; Greig, Erin E.; Landman, Bennett A.; Davatzikos, Christos.; Resnick, Susan M.; Wu, Bei.; Ferrucci, Luigi. (2026).听.听Journal of Dentistry, 171, 106732.听
Tooth loss has been linked to memory problems and faster cognitive decline in older adults, but it is not known whether losing teeth is also associated with changes in brain structure, especially in white matter, the brain tissue that carries signals between regions and can be affected by inflammation and blood vessel problems. In this study, researchers followed 375 participants from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging for an average of 4.8 years and compared clinically measured tooth loss with changes seen on MRI brain scans and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a type of scan that shows the health of white matter. The participants, who had an average age of 65.5 years, were tracked over as long as 12 years. The results showed that people with more tooth loss were more likely to already have signs of brain changes, including a larger fourth ventricle, which is a fluid-filled space in the brain, smaller brain volumes in temporal regions, more abnormalities in deep white matter, and lower white matter integrity in the corpus callosum, the major fiber tract connecting the two sides of the brain. Over time, each lost tooth was linked to a faster decline in white matter health in the corpus callosum and corona radiata, suggesting ongoing damage to these pathways. Tooth loss was also associated with higher levels of blood markers related to inflammation, such as white blood cells and neutrophils, and with lower albumin, a protein that can reflect overall health. However, these inflammation markers did not explain the brain imaging findings. The study suggests that tooth loss may be a warning sign of worsening white matter health in aging, even apart from the inflammation measures examined here.
Fig. 1.听Study design.聽Legend: Created in BioRender. Greig, E. (2026)聽.