Metabolic Profiling of Individuals with Missing Teeth and Tooth Loss.

Area of Science:

• Oral Health and Systemic Metabolism
• Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Research

Background:

• Missing teeth are associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and mortality.
• Previous research linked oral infections to unfavorable circulating metabolite profiles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between missing teeth and tooth loss with metabolic features.
• To determine if tooth loss endpoints reflect similar metabolic alterations as oral infections.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from three Finnish cohorts (Health-2000, FINRISK-97, Parogene) with clinical dental examinations.
• Quantified 157 serum metabolites using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
• Employed linear regression and fixed-effects meta-analysis, adjusting for key health and lifestyle factors.

Main Results:

• Missing teeth correlated with increased very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL)-related measures and triglycerides.
• Associated with decreased high-density lipoprotein (HDL) parameters and altered fatty acid profiles (lower unsaturated, higher saturated FAs).
• Number of teeth at baseline predicted changes in lipoprotein and fatty acid concentrations over time.

Conclusions:

• Missing teeth are linked to adverse metabolic profiles indicative of systemic inflammation.
• These metabolic features represent significant risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases.
• The findings highlight the systemic implications of dental health on overall metabolic well-being.