How flossing can save your life

We know it helps stop tooth decay – but new research shows that good oral care can prevent heart disease, diabetes and even dementia.

It's hard to be long in the tooth when you've got no teeth, because they've all fallen out. At least you don't have to remember to brush them – not because you don't have any teeth, but because you've lost your memory because your teeth have fallen out. And, anyway, you're more worried about the condition of your heart and your lungs; the risk of developing disease in your vital organs has increased, because your teeth have fallen out.


We all know to look after our teeth lest they become yellow and unhealthy and require painful trips to the dreaded dentist. But how many of us would take more care if we realised how much the state of our mouths can affect our overall health. "People think of the mouth as some kind of compartment that's independent from the rest of the body," says Ian Needleman, professor of restorative dentistry at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute in London. "But that doesn't really make a lot of sense."

A study published last month suggests there could be a link between low tooth count, and poor memory. Scientists at the University of Kentucky in America put people aged between 75 and 90 through a test in which they were asked to recall 10 words they had been presented with five minutes earlier. All the participants, who repeated the test over three consecutive years, were from similar educational backgrounds, but there was variation in their results. People with fewer teeth scored lower than those with more teeth in the first test – and their scores declined far quicker thereafter.

Read the full article by Simon Usborne here .