Methods: A total of 1,261 adults aged 42 years (1,059 men and 202 women) were followed after four years, using data from health checkups in a Japanese company. The health checkup included medical and dental examination, measurements of biochemical markers and self-administered questionnaire about health behavior. Subjects were divided into four groups according to the change of prosthetic status during four years: individuals who completed prosthetic treatment for tooth loss (G1), individuals who experienced tooth loss required prosthetic treatment (G2), individuals who did not need prosthetic treatment for tooth loss (G3) and individuals who left tooth loss required prosthetic treatment undone (G4). The change in intake frequency of major food groups, the level of glucose and lipid metabolism biomarkers and the positive finding rate in upper gastrointestinal tract at the age of 46 years were compared by the prosthetic status.
Results: The distribution of prosthetic status was 6.9% in G1, 6.0% in G2, 80.7% in G3, and 6.3% in G4. Compared with G1, G4 had a higher proportion of individuals with the increase in intake frequency of salty food (9.2% vs. 18.8%). G4 showed a significantly higher level of HbA1c and triglyceride compared with other groups (P<0.05). The highest proportion of individuals with the positive finding in upper gastrointestinal tract was observed in G4 (42.0%), followed by G2 (40.3%).
Conclusions: Our results suggest that a reduction in masticatory ability caused by untreated tooth loss results in poor dietary pattern, leading to metabolism disorders and upper gastrointestinal lesions.